The Outlook For District 17 - saturation media blitz
On January 21, the paradigm of partisan politics shifted on its
axis by 180 degrees.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled five to four that not only is a
corporation just another person with all the powers and
privileges of any person to sell, buy, lease, rent, issue
securities, borrow, lend, manufacture, market or license others
to do the same, it also has the near-absolute privilege of the
freedom of expression under the First Amendment to the U.S.
Constitution.
It is a complete reversal of a body of law that was enacted
during the Theodore Roosevelt Administration to limit the power
of corporations to endorse and advertise their preference for
candidates in Federal elections.
What this means to voters is that they will soon be hearing from
major American and multinational corporations in saturation
advertising going into the primary elections on March 2.
All such expression had been previously disallowed by campaign
finance laws enforced by the Federal Election Commission.
President Obama called it "a major victory for big oil, Wall
Street banks, health insurance companies and the other powerful
interests that marshal their power every day in Washington to
drown out the voices of everyday Americans."
The Justice who wrote the controlling majority opinion in
Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission differed in his
estimation of corporate privilege in this way.
"If the First Amendment has any force," Justice Anthony M.
Kennedy wrote for the majority, which included the four members
of the court's conservative wing, "it prohibits Congress from
fining or jailing citizens, or associations of citizens, for
simply engaging in political speech....
"When government seeks to use its full power, including the
criminal law, to command where a person may get his or her
information or what distrusted source he or she may not hear, it
uses censorship to control thought," Justice Kennedy wrote. "This
is unlawful. The First Amendment confirms the freedom to think
for ourselves."
The ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission,
reversed two precedents. They are Austin v. Michigan Chamber of
Commerce, a 1990 decision that upheld restrictions on corporate
spending to support or oppose political candidates, and McConnell
v. Federal Election Commission, a 2003 decision that upheld the
part of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 that
restricted campaign spending by corporations and unions.
The dispute in Citizens United stemmed from a made-for-sattelite and cable feature length film critical of Presidential Candidate Senator Hillary
Clinton. The decision reversed a holding of the Washington,
D.C., U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals which upheld the FEC regulations.
In the 2008 election cycle, which coincided with the Democratic
Party's victory over Republican candidate John McCain,
Democrats increased their majorities in both chambers. Of the 435
congressional districts, 242 were carried by Obama, while 193
voted for McCain. Of the districts Obama won, 34 elected a
Republican to the House, while 49 of the districts McCain won
elected a Democrat.
In an all-out effort to win back the swing districts they lost in
the two previous elections, Republican operatives are
aggressively targeting districts and states where the Democratic
delegation has been in place for a long time. Both parties have
been preparing to defend seats that they risk losing. Democrats,
who occupy more of the swing districts, are operating more on the
defensive than the Republicans. The Democratic Congressional
Campaign Committee (DCCC) has highlighted 40 Democratic
incumbents at risk in what is called the "Frontline Program."
The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) has in
turn highlighted 10 Republican incumbents at risk as the "Patriot
Program." They later added 15 additional names to the list,
bringing the total to 25.
Though District 17 is not one of those districts so identified,
it does have a Cook Partisan Voting Index of "R + 20." That is a
figure derived from a formula devised by Charlie Cook of the Cook
Political Report and Polidata, a political statistics and
analysis firm. In the 17th District, Republican Senator John
McCain secured 67 percent of the votes cast against Democrat
Barack Obama.
Though an estimated 63 percent of registered voters in District
17 are Republican, Democrat Chet Edwards continues to win
election after election.
The index for each Congressional District is calculated by
averaging the two prior presidential elections and comparing them
to national results.
The only Texas Congressional District considered at risk by the
DCCC, the 23rd District represented by Democrat Ciro Rodriguez,
stretches from just east of El Paso to the border city of Del Rio
and takes in Pecos, Ft. Stockton, Uvalde and Cystal City as well
as the Big Bend. The eighth-largest Congressional District in
the U.S., it has a Cook Partisan Voting Index of R + 2.
The best-financed candidate in the Republican Primary, Bill
Flores, a retired CEO of a Houston oil and gas exploration firm,
has a war chest of more than $400,000 - $300,000 of which he
contributed from his own funds.
A "Pre-sorted Standard U.S. Postage" campaign mailing received by
targeted voters late last week in the 17th District is a four-
color job on slick card stock that reads this way.
"Make Sure Your Vote Counts! Complete Your Absentee Ballot
Request Form And Return It By February 23.
"If you need an absentee ballot request form, please don't
hesitate to contact our office at 1-888-704-BILL (2455)."
This means that the Flores campaign organization will be taking
on the expense of yet another mailing in response to these
requests in the 17th District, a tactic that is as expensive as
it is aggressive. It is no doubt geared to get out the Republican
early vote before the Primary on March 2.
In all available polls, the Flores organization is reported to
have scored less than 10 percent of voter approval.
The Flores war chest, cash raised for which is reported by the
FEC as $416,466, compares with a total of $138,765 raised by the
Rob Curnock campaign and $122,271 raised by the Chuck Wilson
election committee. Candidate Dave McIntyre has reportedly raised
$123,965, according to the website OpenSecrets.org
These figures compare with a war chest of $1,405,254 reported to
the FEC by Democratic incumbent Chet Edwards.
Republicans estimate that he outspent Republican candidate Rob
Curnock by 23 to one during the 2008 election cycle.
jim@downdirtyword.com
Monday, February 8, 2010
Saturday, February 6, 2010
State Senate Candidate Recounts Bad Boy Past -
He's looking forward to a chance to attract venture capital
The only willing Republican candidate for the District 22
State Senate seat that will be vacated by Wacoan Kip Averitt
went to work at the age of 14 on a hardship driver's license
to aid a father who was deeply in debt following a bruising
divorce.
They had been in Lubbock where he racked up an impressive
record for youthful infractions on his motorcycle and
climbing the catwalks of domed field house at Texas Tech.
After the divorce, they returned to the Metroplex where they
lived together during his high school years.
Within 18 grueling months of selling newspapers and
servicing a janitorial route, he recalls, the two of them
had worked themselves out of debt.
"When I tell you I'm fiscally conservative," Darren Yancy, a
Burleson insurance broker and venture capital broker who was
originally trained as an investment banker at the University
of Texas' Arlington campus, "it means I'm a tightwad."
He addressed a small Friday night gathering of voters in a
meeting room of a hotel on I-35 in Waco.
Graduating just in time for the 1987 stock market crash,
"the first real crash since 1929," he declared, Mr. Yancy
went to work selling Mazdas. He bettered his sales career
after four years to sell fire detection equipment, then
traded up to home security systems at Brinks where he helped
the national sales manager upgrade the program from a $99
startup fee to a $279 initial deal with more bells and
whistles attached.
When Brinks decided to promote him and demanded he relocate
his wife and family after leading the sales program as a
national top liner, he responded to a better offer from
Nationwide Insurance writing trucking liability, life and
casualty policies.
He has headed his own insurance and real estate brokerage
now for 16 years and branched out into researching the
market for alternative energy and biofuel programs,
desalinization plants to meet future demands for drinking
water, and a need for new and better ways of feeding our
transportation systems, industrial plants and homes to
achieve true energy independence.
His research into venture capital opportunities has opened
his eyes to many new biofuels above and beyond the solar and
wind power solutions. For instance, he claims, ocean-based
wind power turbines can generate enough horsepower to turn
electrical turbines and desalinate seawater simultaneously.
As a state senator, "I'd like to be there and be active
attracting venture capital."
He ticks off his qualifications as a social conservative.
Life begins in the womb.
Eminent domain policies as practiced in Texas are "a little
loosey goosey" to suit him. While he's not anti-growth, he
wants to see people properly compensated when utilities or
semi-public economic development corporations condemn
property. He has had several go-rounds with a pipeline
company that cut across his Burleson back yard in the middle
of the natural gas boom and located a valve station there.
That was when the second outfit came along with a similar
condemnation proceeding.
"I've got more money in my place now than I could ever sell
it for. I'm stuck," he said ruefully. State government
should become more active in protecting the rights of
property owners faced with similar circumstances, according
to Mr. Yancy.
Nullification of certain Federal mandates would restore the
guarantees of states rights in the 10th Amendment; the
retention of the peoples' individual rights under the
guarantee of the 9th Amendment that "The enumeration in the
Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to
deny or disparage others retained by the people;" and a
strict construction of the Second Amendment's guarantee that
the right of the people to keep and bear arms "shall not be
infringed."
How is something like that accomplished?
There has to be a resolution passed by two-thirds of both
houses of the legislature, then ratified by the voters. It
takes an exercise of the political will. Being a yes man
won't get the job done.
"If anyone thinks they're going to tell me that as a
freshman Senator I should take a back seat, I'm going to
tell them to have a nice day and go on about my business."
He does not believe in the evidence of global warming
because the polarity of the planet has been reversed more
than 300 times and the planet survived. Renewable energy
projects will eventually augment coal, natural gas and
nuclear projects. In fact, he claims his research shows,
modern researchers have found a way to bring a nuclear plant
on-line in less than half the present 15 years of start-up
time and have found new ways to dispose of the waste.
"Biofuels will soon be a two or three trillion dollar
industry."
What are biofuels? "To discuss that would be to divulge
trade secrets and I'm not going to get into that."
United Nations biodiversity treaties can be stopped at the
state line if legislators and voters team together to
nullify the new laws.
Cap and trade taxation is just another Value Added Taxation
sales tax scheme in disguise. "All cap and trade is, it's a
way to make you pay extra for what you use and curtail the
amount you do use."
Value Added Taxation? "That's just a poor man's tax.
That's all it is."
He favors equitable property taxation in which the appraisal
districts must adhere to a realistic cap of no more than a
certain percentage of appreciation in any single year.
Five percent? "I think that's too much."
The state water plan and water districting schemes so
lovingly prepared by Senator Averitt are a shaky
proposition. "I'm not sure I want to sign off on it."
Responding to questions from TEA Party members who object to
a new user fee of about $1,000 to drill a well on one's own
property - a provision of the new water district in which
McLennan County property owners have been placed - he said,
"I'm not for taxing the living daylights out of people."
Part of his mission to Waco involves fence mending.
He assured local residents that he would keep an office open
in Waco to hear their concerns and communicate with voters
on a daily basis.
"We have to improve McLennan County's image," he said of
current dust-ups between State Republican Party officials,
candidates and County Republican chairmen in the ten
counties of District 22 over the disputed candidacy of Mr.
Averitt, who has announced he does not wish to be re-elected
due to health concerns in spite of a draft Averitt movement.
Because of the state constitution, "There's no way McLennan
County will get carved up in redistricting the state Senate
district."
The 17th Congressional District is another matter, he
declared. Federal constitutional requirements are quite
different than those of the Texas state constitution.
Finally, he is in no mood to tolerate such inexplicable
devlopments as Possum Kingdom's hydroelectric dam being
taken off-line due to a lack of maintenance funding by the
Brazos River Authority.
"There is no other hydroelectric project nationwide that has
been taken off-line."
He applauded State Representative Doc Anderson's success in
guaranteeing $1.5 billion in DOT funds to improve and
maintain area roads.
How about education?
Mr. Yancy said "They're teaching to a test, thinking
everyone is going to go to college. We all know that 7 out
of 10 people aren't going to go to college." He called for
an expansion of "secondary level" education in vocational
and occupational industrial areas similar to the programs
found in the Texas State Technical College system.
His impression of present day educational practices.
Astonished, he said, "My kids say, 'Dad, help us with our
homework,' but they don't have any books!"
No books?
TEA Party members began an instant hubbub about the
unfeasibility of expecting every home to have a computer for
kids to use and the general unavailability of library
computer resources.
The only willing Republican candidate for the District 22
State Senate seat that will be vacated by Wacoan Kip Averitt
went to work at the age of 14 on a hardship driver's license
to aid a father who was deeply in debt following a bruising
divorce.
They had been in Lubbock where he racked up an impressive
record for youthful infractions on his motorcycle and
climbing the catwalks of domed field house at Texas Tech.
After the divorce, they returned to the Metroplex where they
lived together during his high school years.
Within 18 grueling months of selling newspapers and
servicing a janitorial route, he recalls, the two of them
had worked themselves out of debt.
"When I tell you I'm fiscally conservative," Darren Yancy, a
Burleson insurance broker and venture capital broker who was
originally trained as an investment banker at the University
of Texas' Arlington campus, "it means I'm a tightwad."
He addressed a small Friday night gathering of voters in a
meeting room of a hotel on I-35 in Waco.
Graduating just in time for the 1987 stock market crash,
"the first real crash since 1929," he declared, Mr. Yancy
went to work selling Mazdas. He bettered his sales career
after four years to sell fire detection equipment, then
traded up to home security systems at Brinks where he helped
the national sales manager upgrade the program from a $99
startup fee to a $279 initial deal with more bells and
whistles attached.
When Brinks decided to promote him and demanded he relocate
his wife and family after leading the sales program as a
national top liner, he responded to a better offer from
Nationwide Insurance writing trucking liability, life and
casualty policies.
He has headed his own insurance and real estate brokerage
now for 16 years and branched out into researching the
market for alternative energy and biofuel programs,
desalinization plants to meet future demands for drinking
water, and a need for new and better ways of feeding our
transportation systems, industrial plants and homes to
achieve true energy independence.
His research into venture capital opportunities has opened
his eyes to many new biofuels above and beyond the solar and
wind power solutions. For instance, he claims, ocean-based
wind power turbines can generate enough horsepower to turn
electrical turbines and desalinate seawater simultaneously.
As a state senator, "I'd like to be there and be active
attracting venture capital."
He ticks off his qualifications as a social conservative.
Life begins in the womb.
Eminent domain policies as practiced in Texas are "a little
loosey goosey" to suit him. While he's not anti-growth, he
wants to see people properly compensated when utilities or
semi-public economic development corporations condemn
property. He has had several go-rounds with a pipeline
company that cut across his Burleson back yard in the middle
of the natural gas boom and located a valve station there.
That was when the second outfit came along with a similar
condemnation proceeding.
"I've got more money in my place now than I could ever sell
it for. I'm stuck," he said ruefully. State government
should become more active in protecting the rights of
property owners faced with similar circumstances, according
to Mr. Yancy.
Nullification of certain Federal mandates would restore the
guarantees of states rights in the 10th Amendment; the
retention of the peoples' individual rights under the
guarantee of the 9th Amendment that "The enumeration in the
Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to
deny or disparage others retained by the people;" and a
strict construction of the Second Amendment's guarantee that
the right of the people to keep and bear arms "shall not be
infringed."
How is something like that accomplished?
There has to be a resolution passed by two-thirds of both
houses of the legislature, then ratified by the voters. It
takes an exercise of the political will. Being a yes man
won't get the job done.
"If anyone thinks they're going to tell me that as a
freshman Senator I should take a back seat, I'm going to
tell them to have a nice day and go on about my business."
He does not believe in the evidence of global warming
because the polarity of the planet has been reversed more
than 300 times and the planet survived. Renewable energy
projects will eventually augment coal, natural gas and
nuclear projects. In fact, he claims his research shows,
modern researchers have found a way to bring a nuclear plant
on-line in less than half the present 15 years of start-up
time and have found new ways to dispose of the waste.
"Biofuels will soon be a two or three trillion dollar
industry."
What are biofuels? "To discuss that would be to divulge
trade secrets and I'm not going to get into that."
United Nations biodiversity treaties can be stopped at the
state line if legislators and voters team together to
nullify the new laws.
Cap and trade taxation is just another Value Added Taxation
sales tax scheme in disguise. "All cap and trade is, it's a
way to make you pay extra for what you use and curtail the
amount you do use."
Value Added Taxation? "That's just a poor man's tax.
That's all it is."
He favors equitable property taxation in which the appraisal
districts must adhere to a realistic cap of no more than a
certain percentage of appreciation in any single year.
Five percent? "I think that's too much."
The state water plan and water districting schemes so
lovingly prepared by Senator Averitt are a shaky
proposition. "I'm not sure I want to sign off on it."
Responding to questions from TEA Party members who object to
a new user fee of about $1,000 to drill a well on one's own
property - a provision of the new water district in which
McLennan County property owners have been placed - he said,
"I'm not for taxing the living daylights out of people."
Part of his mission to Waco involves fence mending.
He assured local residents that he would keep an office open
in Waco to hear their concerns and communicate with voters
on a daily basis.
"We have to improve McLennan County's image," he said of
current dust-ups between State Republican Party officials,
candidates and County Republican chairmen in the ten
counties of District 22 over the disputed candidacy of Mr.
Averitt, who has announced he does not wish to be re-elected
due to health concerns in spite of a draft Averitt movement.
Because of the state constitution, "There's no way McLennan
County will get carved up in redistricting the state Senate
district."
The 17th Congressional District is another matter, he
declared. Federal constitutional requirements are quite
different than those of the Texas state constitution.
Finally, he is in no mood to tolerate such inexplicable
devlopments as Possum Kingdom's hydroelectric dam being
taken off-line due to a lack of maintenance funding by the
Brazos River Authority.
"There is no other hydroelectric project nationwide that has
been taken off-line."
He applauded State Representative Doc Anderson's success in
guaranteeing $1.5 billion in DOT funds to improve and
maintain area roads.
How about education?
Mr. Yancy said "They're teaching to a test, thinking
everyone is going to go to college. We all know that 7 out
of 10 people aren't going to go to college." He called for
an expansion of "secondary level" education in vocational
and occupational industrial areas similar to the programs
found in the Texas State Technical College system.
His impression of present day educational practices.
Astonished, he said, "My kids say, 'Dad, help us with our
homework,' but they don't have any books!"
No books?
TEA Party members began an instant hubbub about the
unfeasibility of expecting every home to have a computer for
kids to use and the general unavailability of library
computer resources.
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Internet Straw Polls and FEC Figures Tell Campaign Story
"You can take a poll and make it show you just about
anything you want it to say." - President Lyndon Baines
Johnson going into the 1968 Primary season
As unscientific as they may be, two straw polls circulating
in Texas Congressional District 17 tell the story of the
hotly contested Republican Primary election in stark figures
with startling similarity.
In both cases, candidates Dave McIntyre, Rob Curnock and
Chuck Wilson are the three frontrunners.
In one poll published on the worldwide web out of Michigan,
candidate Dave McIntyre leads by 51.37 percent with 243
votes out of 473 cast, trailed by Rob Curnock with 22.03
percent, 104 votes, and Chuck Wilson with 12.29 percent and
58 votes.
Bill Flores trails Tim Delasandro with 1.69 percent, 8 votes
to Mr. Delasandro's 3.59 percent with 16 votes. Forty-four
respondents were undecided in the AcePolls.com-sponsored
informal straw poll featured on Edward Waller's website,
www.wallerdev.com Mr. Waller is a software engineer and
website designer who offers instant polls any time or
anywhere on any subject
In another, earlier poll generated by the Waco CBS outlet,
KWTX TV Channel 10, on January 6, Rob Curnock tallied 45.2
percent of 766 votes, leading Chuck Wilson with 23.2 percent
and Dave McIntyre with 19.7 percent.
In that poll, Bill Flores leads Timothy Delasandro with 8.1
percent of the votes, contrasted with 4.3 percent cast for
Mr. Delasandro.
Respondents were asked at that time to indicate "If the GOP
primary were held today, whom would you vote for in the race
for the right to challenge Democratic central Texas
Congressman Chet Edwards in November?"
According to KWTX Web Content Producer Micah Williams, it is
suspected that most respondents to that poll are from the
Waco viewing area of the television station.
But it's in the area of campaign finance figures that the
results are skewed heavily in favor of Mr. Flores, a retired
CEO of Phoenix Exploration, L.P., who moved to College
Station to take over his duties as President of the Texas
A&M Alumni Association.
Everything about Mr. Flores spells rainmaker, from the
pattern on his tie - an elephant hoisting an umbrella over
its head with its trunk - to his work record as an
accounting major who traded up to running energy companies
such as Marine Petroleum and Phoenix Exploration.
The figures indicating the deals he made during his career
trip across the page with hundreds of millions of dollars
tallied, indicating a thrust toward expansion and
development of domestic oil and gas fields, as opposed to
foreign production.
According to a profile published by Research and Markets.com
out of Dublin, Ireland, Phoenix Exploration, L.P., a
Houston-based limited partnership that is "an oil and gas
focused exploration and acquisition/exploitation company
with a focus in the shallow waters of the Gulf of Mexico and
the Gulf Coast," acquired all the oil properties owned by
Cabot Oil and Gas Corporation for $340 million in 2006. The
oil fields thus acquired stretch from Belle Isle, Cameron,
and offshore Louisiana to High Island and Galveston.
During that period, the Carlyle Group and Riverstone
Holdings invested $250 million in Phoenix Exploration, L.P.
Of all the Republican candidates' Federal Election
Commmission war chest records, Mr. Flores' figures are
astronomically higher.
He has amassed $416,466 as of year end 2009, $303,865 of
which he contributed to his own account; $111,601 came from
individuals and $1,000 from a PAC.
This compares with the Chet Edwards war chest, which
consists of a reported $1,405,254, $800,355 of which came
from individual contributions, $500,069 of which was
contributed by Political Action Committees and $14,830
attributed to "other" sources, an amount that is more than
triple the Flores campaign treasury.
Mr. Flores' nearest rival in the political contributions
game is Robert Curnock with a total of $138,765, $85,761 of
which was contributed by individuals, $250 by the Republican
Party and $52,734 donated by the candidate.
Challenger David McIntyre reported no figures during that
FEC reporting period, but a report on OpenSecrets.org
declares that he has raised a total of $123,965, spent
$49,763, and contributed a sizable portion to that total on
his own behalf.
The campaign treasury of Chuck Wilson records $122,271
total, $102,271 of which was contributed by individuals
while $20,000 was added to the total by the candidate.
This has become a sore spot between the two candidates.
Wilson campaign literature mentions that of the "three
viable candidates," meaning himself, Curnock and McIntyre,
he is the only one who is not showing a substantial campaign
debt on FEC tally sheets. He is on record expressing the
opinion that it is hard to attract contributions when a
campaign fund is in debt to the candidate.
The Federal commission requires candidates to show money
they advanced themselves as loans, arriving at a net figure
of debt owed to themselves.
Mr. McIntyre has called on Mr. Wilson to alter his campaign
rhetoric and revise the language on his website. "I owe no
money!" he has declared.
Mr. Wilson has so far not responded to his request.
Contribution figures supplied by the OpenSecrets.org
website, a project of the Participatory Politics Foundation
and the Sunlight Foundation, shows that Mr. Flores
contributed $38,400 to various Republican campaigns during
the 2008 election cycle.
Aside from a $100,000 contribution he sent to the Surgeon
General of the U.S. Army for wounded soldiers and their
families at Brooke Army Hospital at Ft. Sam Houston, San
Antonio, Mr. Flores donated $31,900 to the McCain-Palin
campaign, $2,000 to the Wildcatters Fund of the IPAA, $2,200
to the Senatorial campaign of John Cornyn, $1,300 to the
Mike Huckabee for President primary campaign and a $1,000
contribution to the Republican National Committee.
jim@downdirtyword.com
anything you want it to say." - President Lyndon Baines
Johnson going into the 1968 Primary season
As unscientific as they may be, two straw polls circulating
in Texas Congressional District 17 tell the story of the
hotly contested Republican Primary election in stark figures
with startling similarity.
In both cases, candidates Dave McIntyre, Rob Curnock and
Chuck Wilson are the three frontrunners.
In one poll published on the worldwide web out of Michigan,
candidate Dave McIntyre leads by 51.37 percent with 243
votes out of 473 cast, trailed by Rob Curnock with 22.03
percent, 104 votes, and Chuck Wilson with 12.29 percent and
58 votes.
Bill Flores trails Tim Delasandro with 1.69 percent, 8 votes
to Mr. Delasandro's 3.59 percent with 16 votes. Forty-four
respondents were undecided in the AcePolls.com-sponsored
informal straw poll featured on Edward Waller's website,
www.wallerdev.com Mr. Waller is a software engineer and
website designer who offers instant polls any time or
anywhere on any subject
In another, earlier poll generated by the Waco CBS outlet,
KWTX TV Channel 10, on January 6, Rob Curnock tallied 45.2
percent of 766 votes, leading Chuck Wilson with 23.2 percent
and Dave McIntyre with 19.7 percent.
In that poll, Bill Flores leads Timothy Delasandro with 8.1
percent of the votes, contrasted with 4.3 percent cast for
Mr. Delasandro.
Respondents were asked at that time to indicate "If the GOP
primary were held today, whom would you vote for in the race
for the right to challenge Democratic central Texas
Congressman Chet Edwards in November?"
According to KWTX Web Content Producer Micah Williams, it is
suspected that most respondents to that poll are from the
Waco viewing area of the television station.
But it's in the area of campaign finance figures that the
results are skewed heavily in favor of Mr. Flores, a retired
CEO of Phoenix Exploration, L.P., who moved to College
Station to take over his duties as President of the Texas
A&M Alumni Association.
Everything about Mr. Flores spells rainmaker, from the
pattern on his tie - an elephant hoisting an umbrella over
its head with its trunk - to his work record as an
accounting major who traded up to running energy companies
such as Marine Petroleum and Phoenix Exploration.
The figures indicating the deals he made during his career
trip across the page with hundreds of millions of dollars
tallied, indicating a thrust toward expansion and
development of domestic oil and gas fields, as opposed to
foreign production.
According to a profile published by Research and Markets.com
out of Dublin, Ireland, Phoenix Exploration, L.P., a
Houston-based limited partnership that is "an oil and gas
focused exploration and acquisition/exploitation company
with a focus in the shallow waters of the Gulf of Mexico and
the Gulf Coast," acquired all the oil properties owned by
Cabot Oil and Gas Corporation for $340 million in 2006. The
oil fields thus acquired stretch from Belle Isle, Cameron,
and offshore Louisiana to High Island and Galveston.
During that period, the Carlyle Group and Riverstone
Holdings invested $250 million in Phoenix Exploration, L.P.
Of all the Republican candidates' Federal Election
Commmission war chest records, Mr. Flores' figures are
astronomically higher.
He has amassed $416,466 as of year end 2009, $303,865 of
which he contributed to his own account; $111,601 came from
individuals and $1,000 from a PAC.
This compares with the Chet Edwards war chest, which
consists of a reported $1,405,254, $800,355 of which came
from individual contributions, $500,069 of which was
contributed by Political Action Committees and $14,830
attributed to "other" sources, an amount that is more than
triple the Flores campaign treasury.
Mr. Flores' nearest rival in the political contributions
game is Robert Curnock with a total of $138,765, $85,761 of
which was contributed by individuals, $250 by the Republican
Party and $52,734 donated by the candidate.
Challenger David McIntyre reported no figures during that
FEC reporting period, but a report on OpenSecrets.org
declares that he has raised a total of $123,965, spent
$49,763, and contributed a sizable portion to that total on
his own behalf.
The campaign treasury of Chuck Wilson records $122,271
total, $102,271 of which was contributed by individuals
while $20,000 was added to the total by the candidate.
This has become a sore spot between the two candidates.
Wilson campaign literature mentions that of the "three
viable candidates," meaning himself, Curnock and McIntyre,
he is the only one who is not showing a substantial campaign
debt on FEC tally sheets. He is on record expressing the
opinion that it is hard to attract contributions when a
campaign fund is in debt to the candidate.
The Federal commission requires candidates to show money
they advanced themselves as loans, arriving at a net figure
of debt owed to themselves.
Mr. McIntyre has called on Mr. Wilson to alter his campaign
rhetoric and revise the language on his website. "I owe no
money!" he has declared.
Mr. Wilson has so far not responded to his request.
Contribution figures supplied by the OpenSecrets.org
website, a project of the Participatory Politics Foundation
and the Sunlight Foundation, shows that Mr. Flores
contributed $38,400 to various Republican campaigns during
the 2008 election cycle.
Aside from a $100,000 contribution he sent to the Surgeon
General of the U.S. Army for wounded soldiers and their
families at Brooke Army Hospital at Ft. Sam Houston, San
Antonio, Mr. Flores donated $31,900 to the McCain-Palin
campaign, $2,000 to the Wildcatters Fund of the IPAA, $2,200
to the Senatorial campaign of John Cornyn, $1,300 to the
Mike Huckabee for President primary campaign and a $1,000
contribution to the Republican National Committee.
jim@downdirtyword.com
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Jail Site Selection Committee Recommends EDC Industrial Park
In a unanimous decision, the citizen committee steering
decisions about the new $10 million Bosque County Jail
recommended a seven-acre plot at the Meridian Economic
Development Corporation Industrial Park on Highway 174.
A subcommittee had toured and surveyed an array of nine
possible sites and settled on the recommended location
following a motion by Dr. Tom Bratcher, who is the sole
candidate for Bosque County Republican Chairman and a Baylor
University Professor of Statistics.
Dr. Bratcher said he favors the site because of its location
inside the city limits of Meridian, the available utilities
infrastructure and its proximity to the Courthouse and
Justice of the Peace office right across the 80,000 pound
gross vehicle weight-rated road.
"It will anchor the new industrial area," he commented.
Chief Architect Jeffrey E. Hefflefinger of Southwest
Architects, Inc., furnished a list of similar projects his
firm has located in Economic Development Commission
industrial parks.
The recommendation will be considered by Bosque County
Commissioners in their meeting on Monday morning. If
approved, the committee will begin negotiations with the
Meridian EDC to acquire the site.
decisions about the new $10 million Bosque County Jail
recommended a seven-acre plot at the Meridian Economic
Development Corporation Industrial Park on Highway 174.
A subcommittee had toured and surveyed an array of nine
possible sites and settled on the recommended location
following a motion by Dr. Tom Bratcher, who is the sole
candidate for Bosque County Republican Chairman and a Baylor
University Professor of Statistics.
Dr. Bratcher said he favors the site because of its location
inside the city limits of Meridian, the available utilities
infrastructure and its proximity to the Courthouse and
Justice of the Peace office right across the 80,000 pound
gross vehicle weight-rated road.
"It will anchor the new industrial area," he commented.
Chief Architect Jeffrey E. Hefflefinger of Southwest
Architects, Inc., furnished a list of similar projects his
firm has located in Economic Development Commission
industrial parks.
The recommendation will be considered by Bosque County
Commissioners in their meeting on Monday morning. If
approved, the committee will begin negotiations with the
Meridian EDC to acquire the site.
Fraternal Knives Come Out Between Anti-Terror Warriors
In Waco Republican Debate - CIA, Army Veteran At Odds
"Chuck (Wilson) does not have any campaign debt, unlike Rob
Curnock and Dave McIntyre, Chuck's most viable opponents." -
ChuckWilson4Congress.com
Suddenly, the standing room only crowd of 200 Republican
Party faithful could see the issue crystallize over their
heads in the elegant ambience of the Roosevelt Ballroom's
antique, chandeliers, alabaster toned lampshades and
hardwood flooring, vaulted and beamed ceilings and ornate
bronze embellishments.
Who has the best chance of defeating Congressman Chet
Edwards come November?
Colonel Dave McIntyre, a career Army paratrooper who until
just recently headed Texas A&M's bold new anti-terror
Homeland Security Doctoral Program, chose to address fellow
candidate Chuck Wilson by challenging him to change the
language in his website.
Mr. Wilson is a career CIA station chief who has headed
missions in the third world hell holes of Africa where brush
fire wars of national liberation left the economies and the
social conditions in tattered ruins. He is credited with
the apprehension and subsequent conviction of Carlos the
Jackal, an international terrorist of Venezuelan extraction
who made it hot for western interests throughout Europe when
he engineered the kidnapping of the OPEC ministers and
numerous jets.
Coming down to the wire in the Republican Primary campaign
to get the nomination to oppose long-term Democratic
Congressman Chet Edwards of Waco, the question now is not so
much who is for what and why, but who can win the general
election and bring District 17 into the Repubilcan fold.
Of all five candidates who appeared and whose performance is
archived on the websites KWTX.com and GOPisforme.com, all
agreed that their qualifications are very similar and their
ideological posture is nearly identical. We're talking no
abortions, term limits for Congressmen and Senators, tax
cuts and an end to deficit spending.
The key difference now is who can win.
Mr. Wilson has chosen to emphasize the fact that personal
contributions to their campaign funds make it appear that
the McIntyre campaign and the treasury of the Rob Curnock
For Congress campaign have accumulated debt due to a quirk
in Federal Election Commission regulations.
If you take money out of your own pocket and put it in your
campaign fund, the authorities demand that it must be
accounted for as campaign debt. You owe yourself, as it
were; therefore, the campaign is in debt.
Said Mr. Wilson, "Campaign debt can be a problem with fund
raising."
Mr. McIntyre requested that he strike the verbiage from his
website and campaign literature. He said, "I owe no money!"
Pinned down on the issue, Mr. Wilson quickly backpedaled
into a general discussion of campaign accounting.
He didn't budge, however. He stuck to his guns. His
campaign finance figures show no debt.
Mr. Curnock claims that since he is the only candidate with
actual experience opposing Mr. Edwards in a general election
campaign, he is the candidate most likely to succeed. He is
a former sports anchor on KWTX TV and the owner of a video
taping service located in Waco. In the general election of
2008, he garnered 45.5 percent of the vote while the Edwards
campaign outspent him 23 to one. This is in a district
consisting of 651,000 registered voters, 63 percent of whom
are Republicans.
The issues of national security display a fundamental schism
between the two candidates with the most experience in the
field of opposing terrorism, Mr. Wilson and Mr. McIntyre.
On the one hand, Mr. McIntyre calls for more transparency in
the Homeland Security apparatus.
"I have read every page of the Patriot Act - all three
hundred sixty some odd pages of it. I've assigned it to my
students. I can't read it. They can't read it." This
inscrutability, he said, makes it hard to maneuver within
the confines of the law, to color between the lines and stay
in the box.
"People don't pay enough attention to what is done under the
Patriot Act, what the FBI does under the Patriot Act."
The law raises hell with any efficiency to be had battling
terrorism because, all the candidates seemed to agree,
terrorism is neither a law enforcement problem, nor is it a
military objective to battle it with troops and navies.
As NATO Commander General Dozier said when he was liberated
from his kidnappers, the Red Brigade, in the eighties, going
after terrorists with the Army is "Kind of like going after
a house fly with a sledge hammer."
How does an expert define terrorism?
"Terrorism is the use of criminal means to enforce political
objectives...It is the Friday afternoon sermon in every
mosque everywhere in the world," said Mr. McIntyre.
On the other hand, Mr. Wilson called for more opacity in the
process.
He chose to paraphrase Mr. Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes of
the U.S. Supreme Court.
"I can't define terrorism, but I know a terrorist when I see
one."
He said that he sees a need for more secret courts organized
under the auspices of the Foreign Intelligence Security Act
(FISA). He called for more prosecutions under the auspices
of military tribunals. These courts address crimes of
defendants who are considered military combatants and not
citizens. There is no writ of habeas corpus to be obtained;
defendants may be held incommunicado and without legal
representation indefinitely.
After the 9/11 attacks, he declared, while he was serving in
pariah state of The Sudan as CIA station chief, "I saw the
FBI debrief terrorists for days and days about the World
Trade Center bombing - about matters we had been sending
them intelligence reports about for years."
Why is the enemy the enemy?
"It's their religion. If you are an infidel, you have no
value...There's no moral consequences for killing us in the
thousands."
Mr. McIntyre brought the issue back to Earth with one deft
stroke regarding a Congressional role in appropriating money
for interstate transportation. He reminded the people
assembled there that if there is a natural disaster in New
Orleans or in the Metroplex cities of Dallas/Ft. Worth, the
refugees streaming out of the area are routed through Waco.
It's in the geographic center of the state, right on the
route to the midwest and the rest of the sunbelt.
The problem is that Interstate 35 still consists of two
lanes of concrete, the same two lanes that were originally
built in 1958, resulting in massive traffic jams that can
turn the highway into a parking lot between the I-35 east
and west split at Hillsboro all the way to Temple on even a
normal day.
In terms of waiting for the government to come up with the
money to modernize the national defense routes through
Central Texas, "You're standing in line behind Boise,
Idaho."
Said Mr. Curnock of his experience opposing Mr. Edwards. "I
talked about ideology and he talked about bringing home the
bacon." He ticked off the issues one by one, poor water
quality, a lack of ramp space at Waco International and the
Ft. Hood air field, and poor future development of
interstate highways.
"Most people never look at his voting record," he said of
Mr. Edwards' performance over his multi-term tenure in the
House of Representatives.
"We can fix that with term limits," said Mr. Wilson.
One thing they agree upon, Wilson and McIntyre. That is
that the Obama Administration and the current Congressional
leadership are socialist ideologues.
"We are engaged with brutal Chicago socialists," said Mr.
Wilson.
In a show of hands, about half of the throng of 200 people
indicated they already know for whom they intend to vote in
the primary.
Mr. Curnock reminded them, "In the last (District 17)
election, 55,000 people changed parties to vote Republican."
"This is going to be a referendum on Chet Edwards and Chet
Edwards is going to lose the referendum," said Timothy
Delasandro, a College Station candidate who was a Russian
language expert in the Navy and worked for the National
Security Agency. He now works as a Registered Nurse on
intensive care wards in the Bryan-College Station area.
"Chuck (Wilson) does not have any campaign debt, unlike Rob
Curnock and Dave McIntyre, Chuck's most viable opponents." -
ChuckWilson4Congress.com
Suddenly, the standing room only crowd of 200 Republican
Party faithful could see the issue crystallize over their
heads in the elegant ambience of the Roosevelt Ballroom's
antique, chandeliers, alabaster toned lampshades and
hardwood flooring, vaulted and beamed ceilings and ornate
bronze embellishments.
Who has the best chance of defeating Congressman Chet
Edwards come November?
Colonel Dave McIntyre, a career Army paratrooper who until
just recently headed Texas A&M's bold new anti-terror
Homeland Security Doctoral Program, chose to address fellow
candidate Chuck Wilson by challenging him to change the
language in his website.
Mr. Wilson is a career CIA station chief who has headed
missions in the third world hell holes of Africa where brush
fire wars of national liberation left the economies and the
social conditions in tattered ruins. He is credited with
the apprehension and subsequent conviction of Carlos the
Jackal, an international terrorist of Venezuelan extraction
who made it hot for western interests throughout Europe when
he engineered the kidnapping of the OPEC ministers and
numerous jets.
Coming down to the wire in the Republican Primary campaign
to get the nomination to oppose long-term Democratic
Congressman Chet Edwards of Waco, the question now is not so
much who is for what and why, but who can win the general
election and bring District 17 into the Repubilcan fold.
Of all five candidates who appeared and whose performance is
archived on the websites KWTX.com and GOPisforme.com, all
agreed that their qualifications are very similar and their
ideological posture is nearly identical. We're talking no
abortions, term limits for Congressmen and Senators, tax
cuts and an end to deficit spending.
The key difference now is who can win.
Mr. Wilson has chosen to emphasize the fact that personal
contributions to their campaign funds make it appear that
the McIntyre campaign and the treasury of the Rob Curnock
For Congress campaign have accumulated debt due to a quirk
in Federal Election Commission regulations.
If you take money out of your own pocket and put it in your
campaign fund, the authorities demand that it must be
accounted for as campaign debt. You owe yourself, as it
were; therefore, the campaign is in debt.
Said Mr. Wilson, "Campaign debt can be a problem with fund
raising."
Mr. McIntyre requested that he strike the verbiage from his
website and campaign literature. He said, "I owe no money!"
Pinned down on the issue, Mr. Wilson quickly backpedaled
into a general discussion of campaign accounting.
He didn't budge, however. He stuck to his guns. His
campaign finance figures show no debt.
Mr. Curnock claims that since he is the only candidate with
actual experience opposing Mr. Edwards in a general election
campaign, he is the candidate most likely to succeed. He is
a former sports anchor on KWTX TV and the owner of a video
taping service located in Waco. In the general election of
2008, he garnered 45.5 percent of the vote while the Edwards
campaign outspent him 23 to one. This is in a district
consisting of 651,000 registered voters, 63 percent of whom
are Republicans.
The issues of national security display a fundamental schism
between the two candidates with the most experience in the
field of opposing terrorism, Mr. Wilson and Mr. McIntyre.
On the one hand, Mr. McIntyre calls for more transparency in
the Homeland Security apparatus.
"I have read every page of the Patriot Act - all three
hundred sixty some odd pages of it. I've assigned it to my
students. I can't read it. They can't read it." This
inscrutability, he said, makes it hard to maneuver within
the confines of the law, to color between the lines and stay
in the box.
"People don't pay enough attention to what is done under the
Patriot Act, what the FBI does under the Patriot Act."
The law raises hell with any efficiency to be had battling
terrorism because, all the candidates seemed to agree,
terrorism is neither a law enforcement problem, nor is it a
military objective to battle it with troops and navies.
As NATO Commander General Dozier said when he was liberated
from his kidnappers, the Red Brigade, in the eighties, going
after terrorists with the Army is "Kind of like going after
a house fly with a sledge hammer."
How does an expert define terrorism?
"Terrorism is the use of criminal means to enforce political
objectives...It is the Friday afternoon sermon in every
mosque everywhere in the world," said Mr. McIntyre.
On the other hand, Mr. Wilson called for more opacity in the
process.
He chose to paraphrase Mr. Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes of
the U.S. Supreme Court.
"I can't define terrorism, but I know a terrorist when I see
one."
He said that he sees a need for more secret courts organized
under the auspices of the Foreign Intelligence Security Act
(FISA). He called for more prosecutions under the auspices
of military tribunals. These courts address crimes of
defendants who are considered military combatants and not
citizens. There is no writ of habeas corpus to be obtained;
defendants may be held incommunicado and without legal
representation indefinitely.
After the 9/11 attacks, he declared, while he was serving in
pariah state of The Sudan as CIA station chief, "I saw the
FBI debrief terrorists for days and days about the World
Trade Center bombing - about matters we had been sending
them intelligence reports about for years."
Why is the enemy the enemy?
"It's their religion. If you are an infidel, you have no
value...There's no moral consequences for killing us in the
thousands."
Mr. McIntyre brought the issue back to Earth with one deft
stroke regarding a Congressional role in appropriating money
for interstate transportation. He reminded the people
assembled there that if there is a natural disaster in New
Orleans or in the Metroplex cities of Dallas/Ft. Worth, the
refugees streaming out of the area are routed through Waco.
It's in the geographic center of the state, right on the
route to the midwest and the rest of the sunbelt.
The problem is that Interstate 35 still consists of two
lanes of concrete, the same two lanes that were originally
built in 1958, resulting in massive traffic jams that can
turn the highway into a parking lot between the I-35 east
and west split at Hillsboro all the way to Temple on even a
normal day.
In terms of waiting for the government to come up with the
money to modernize the national defense routes through
Central Texas, "You're standing in line behind Boise,
Idaho."
Said Mr. Curnock of his experience opposing Mr. Edwards. "I
talked about ideology and he talked about bringing home the
bacon." He ticked off the issues one by one, poor water
quality, a lack of ramp space at Waco International and the
Ft. Hood air field, and poor future development of
interstate highways.
"Most people never look at his voting record," he said of
Mr. Edwards' performance over his multi-term tenure in the
House of Representatives.
"We can fix that with term limits," said Mr. Wilson.
One thing they agree upon, Wilson and McIntyre. That is
that the Obama Administration and the current Congressional
leadership are socialist ideologues.
"We are engaged with brutal Chicago socialists," said Mr.
Wilson.
In a show of hands, about half of the throng of 200 people
indicated they already know for whom they intend to vote in
the primary.
Mr. Curnock reminded them, "In the last (District 17)
election, 55,000 people changed parties to vote Republican."
"This is going to be a referendum on Chet Edwards and Chet
Edwards is going to lose the referendum," said Timothy
Delasandro, a College Station candidate who was a Russian
language expert in the Navy and worked for the National
Security Agency. He now works as a Registered Nurse on
intensive care wards in the Bryan-College Station area.
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
"Birthers" continue misinformation, disinformation campaign
If you got a forwarded e-mail about all this, rest easy.
It's not at all true. In fact, it's a political
misinformation campaign designed to inflame and confuse
American voters and the public. - The Legendary
FW: VERY QUIETLY OBAMA'S CITIZENSHIP CASE REACHES SUPREME
COURT
Released copies of President Obama's college transcripts
from Occidental College. Released today, the transcript
indicates that Obama, under the name Barry Soetoro, received
financial aid as a foreign student from Indonesia as an
undergraduate at the school. The transcript was released by
Occidental College in compliance with a court order in a
suit brought by the group in the Superior Court of
California.
The transcript shows that Obama (Soetoro) applied for
financial aid and was awarded a fellowship for foreign
students from the Fulbright Foundation Scholarship program.
To qualify, for the scholarship, a student must claim
foreign citizenship. This document would seem to provide the
smoking gun that many of Obama's detractors have been
seeking. Along with the evidence that he was first born in
Kenya and there is no record of him ever applying for US
citizenship, this is looking pretty grim. The news has
created a firestorm at the White House as the release casts
increasing doubt about Obama's legitimacy and qualification
to serve as president. When reached for comment in London ,
where he has been in meetings with British Prime Minister
Gordon Brown, Obama smiled but refused comment on the issue.
Britain 's Daily Mail has also carried the story in a front-
page article titled, "Obama Eligibility Questioned," leading
some to speculate that the story may overshadow economic
issues on Obama's first official visit to the U.K. In a
related matter, under growing pressure from several groups,
Justice Antonin Scalia announced that the Supreme Court
agreed on Tuesday to hear arguments concerning Obama's legal
eligibility to serve as President in a case brought by Leo
Donofrio of New Jersey. This lawsuit claims Obama's dual
citizenship disqualified him from serving as president.
Donofrio's case is just one of 18 suits brought by citizens
demanding proof of Obama's citizenship or qualification to
serve as president. Gary Kreep of the United States Justice
Foundation has released the results of their investigation
of Obama's campaign spending. This study estimates that
Obama has spent upwards of $950,000 in campaign funds in the
past year with eleven law firms in 12 states for legal
resources to block disclosure of any of his personal
records. Mr. Kreep indicated that the investigation is still
ongoing but that the final report will be provided to the
U.S. attorney general, Eric Holder. Mr. Holder has refused
to comment on the matter.
LET OTHER FOLKS KNOW THIS NEWS, THE MEDIA WON'T!
But wait, there's more!
Obama Faces More Questions on Citizenship
April 1, 2009
AP - WASHINGTON D.C. - In a move certain to fuel the debate
over Obama's qualifications for the presidency, the group
"Americans for Freedom of Information" has released copies
of President Obama's college transcripts from Occidental
College.
Released today, the transcript indicates that Obama, under
the name Barry Soetoro, received financial aid as a foreign
student from Indonesia as an undergraduate at the school.
The transcript was released by Occidental College in
compliance with a court order in a suit brought by the group
in the Superior Court of California. The transcript shows
that Obama (Soetoro) applied for financial aid and was
awarded a fellowship for foreign students from the Fulbright
Foundation Scholarship program. To qualify, for the
scholarship, a student must claim foreign citizenship. This
document would seem to provide the smoking gun that many of
Obama's detractors have been seeking.
The news has created a firestorm at the White House as the
release casts increasing doubt about Obama's legitimacy and
qualification to serve as president. When reached for
comment in London, where he has been in meetings with
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Obama smiled but
refused comment on the issue. Meanwhile, White House press
secretary Robert Gibbs scoffed at the report stating that
this was obviously another attempt by a right-wing
conservative group to discredit the president and undermine
the administration's efforts to move the country in a new
direction.
Britain's Daily Mail has also carried the story in a front-
page article titled, "Obama Eligibility Questioned", leading
some to speculate that the story may overshadow economic
issues on Obama's first official visit to the U.K.
In a related matter, under growing pressure from several
groups, Justice Antonin Scalia announced that the Supreme
Court agreed on Tuesday to hear arguments concerning Obama's
legal eligibility to serve as President in a case brought by
Leo Donofrio of New Jersey. This lawsuit claims Obama's dual
citizenship disqualified him from serving as president.
Donofrio's case is just one of 18 suits brought by citizens
demanding proof of Obama's citizenship or qualification to
serve as president. Gary Kreep of the United States Justice
Foundation has released the results of their investigation
of Obama's campaign spending. This study estimates that
Obama has spent upwards of $950,000 in campaign funds in the
past year with eleven law firms in 12 states for legal
resources to block disclosure of any of his personal
records. Mr. Kreep indicated that the investigation is still
ongoing but that the final report will be provided to the
U.S. attorney general, Eric Holder. Mr. Holder has refused
to comment on the matter.
Mr. David Emery of the website Ask.com tracks these types of
disinformation campaigns. Here's what he has to say about
all this:
Analysis:
Hoax. The original April 1, 2009 posting date suggests it
may have been intended as an April Fools prank, but given
that the text does little else but parrot actual tenets of
the so-called "Birther" movement (the folks who claim Barack
Obama is ineligible for the presidency due to a forged or
invalid birth certificate), it barely qualifies as satire.
Is it really an AP news story?
No. The Associated Press ("AP") never published such a story
in any real newspaper, nor on any real wire service. It can,
however, be found posted and reposted on hundreds of anti-
Obama blogs and websites.
Did a group called "Americans for Freedom of Information"
release Obama's transcripts?
No. The organization doesn't exist or didn't at the time the
above message first began circulating, at any rate. A
similarly-named website went up after the fact, but there is
no evident connection between the website and the fake news
story.
Has anyone released Obama's Occidental College transcripts?
No, they haven't been released, nor has any court of law
"ordered" Obama's transcripts released. Source: Occidental
College
Did Obama attend Occidental under the name "Barry Soetoro"?
No. Soetoro was the name of Obama's stepfather, but there's
no evidence he attended college under that name. Fellow
alumni quoted in the press remember him as "Barry Obama." An
Occidental College spokesperson told there are no records
showing that Obama used his stepfather's last name.
Did Obama attend Occidental under a Fulbright Scholarship
for Foreign Students?
No. According to news sources, Obama did attend Occidental
on a scholarship, but it wasn't a Fulbright scholarship, let
alone a Fulbright designated for foreign students. The
Fulbright Foreign Student Program is for Master's Degree and
Ph.D. candidates only. Obama was neither. He couldn't have
been awarded a Fulbright scholarship for foreign students.
Source: Fulbright Program.
Did the Daily Mail discuss these revelations in a news story
entitled "Obama Eligibility Questioned"?
No. No such story turns up in a search of the London
newspaper's archive.
Did the Supreme Court agree to hear arguments on Obama's
eligibility?
No. The Supreme Court refused to consider the Donofrio case
(not to mention every other Obama citizenship case submitted
to date).
Did Gary Kreep of the United States Justice Foundation
release a study showing Obama has spent $950,000 in campaign
funds to fight litigation over his legitimacy?
I've found no record of any such study being published. The
foundation does exist and its Executive Director is indeed a
man named Gary Kreep, but he is on record as saying the
above story is a hoax.
It's not at all true. In fact, it's a political
misinformation campaign designed to inflame and confuse
American voters and the public. - The Legendary
FW: VERY QUIETLY OBAMA'S CITIZENSHIP CASE REACHES SUPREME
COURT
Released copies of President Obama's college transcripts
from Occidental College. Released today, the transcript
indicates that Obama, under the name Barry Soetoro, received
financial aid as a foreign student from Indonesia as an
undergraduate at the school. The transcript was released by
Occidental College in compliance with a court order in a
suit brought by the group in the Superior Court of
California.
The transcript shows that Obama (Soetoro) applied for
financial aid and was awarded a fellowship for foreign
students from the Fulbright Foundation Scholarship program.
To qualify, for the scholarship, a student must claim
foreign citizenship. This document would seem to provide the
smoking gun that many of Obama's detractors have been
seeking. Along with the evidence that he was first born in
Kenya and there is no record of him ever applying for US
citizenship, this is looking pretty grim. The news has
created a firestorm at the White House as the release casts
increasing doubt about Obama's legitimacy and qualification
to serve as president. When reached for comment in London ,
where he has been in meetings with British Prime Minister
Gordon Brown, Obama smiled but refused comment on the issue.
Britain 's Daily Mail has also carried the story in a front-
page article titled, "Obama Eligibility Questioned," leading
some to speculate that the story may overshadow economic
issues on Obama's first official visit to the U.K. In a
related matter, under growing pressure from several groups,
Justice Antonin Scalia announced that the Supreme Court
agreed on Tuesday to hear arguments concerning Obama's legal
eligibility to serve as President in a case brought by Leo
Donofrio of New Jersey. This lawsuit claims Obama's dual
citizenship disqualified him from serving as president.
Donofrio's case is just one of 18 suits brought by citizens
demanding proof of Obama's citizenship or qualification to
serve as president. Gary Kreep of the United States Justice
Foundation has released the results of their investigation
of Obama's campaign spending. This study estimates that
Obama has spent upwards of $950,000 in campaign funds in the
past year with eleven law firms in 12 states for legal
resources to block disclosure of any of his personal
records. Mr. Kreep indicated that the investigation is still
ongoing but that the final report will be provided to the
U.S. attorney general, Eric Holder. Mr. Holder has refused
to comment on the matter.
LET OTHER FOLKS KNOW THIS NEWS, THE MEDIA WON'T!
But wait, there's more!
Obama Faces More Questions on Citizenship
April 1, 2009
AP - WASHINGTON D.C. - In a move certain to fuel the debate
over Obama's qualifications for the presidency, the group
"Americans for Freedom of Information" has released copies
of President Obama's college transcripts from Occidental
College.
Released today, the transcript indicates that Obama, under
the name Barry Soetoro, received financial aid as a foreign
student from Indonesia as an undergraduate at the school.
The transcript was released by Occidental College in
compliance with a court order in a suit brought by the group
in the Superior Court of California. The transcript shows
that Obama (Soetoro) applied for financial aid and was
awarded a fellowship for foreign students from the Fulbright
Foundation Scholarship program. To qualify, for the
scholarship, a student must claim foreign citizenship. This
document would seem to provide the smoking gun that many of
Obama's detractors have been seeking.
The news has created a firestorm at the White House as the
release casts increasing doubt about Obama's legitimacy and
qualification to serve as president. When reached for
comment in London, where he has been in meetings with
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Obama smiled but
refused comment on the issue. Meanwhile, White House press
secretary Robert Gibbs scoffed at the report stating that
this was obviously another attempt by a right-wing
conservative group to discredit the president and undermine
the administration's efforts to move the country in a new
direction.
Britain's Daily Mail has also carried the story in a front-
page article titled, "Obama Eligibility Questioned", leading
some to speculate that the story may overshadow economic
issues on Obama's first official visit to the U.K.
In a related matter, under growing pressure from several
groups, Justice Antonin Scalia announced that the Supreme
Court agreed on Tuesday to hear arguments concerning Obama's
legal eligibility to serve as President in a case brought by
Leo Donofrio of New Jersey. This lawsuit claims Obama's dual
citizenship disqualified him from serving as president.
Donofrio's case is just one of 18 suits brought by citizens
demanding proof of Obama's citizenship or qualification to
serve as president. Gary Kreep of the United States Justice
Foundation has released the results of their investigation
of Obama's campaign spending. This study estimates that
Obama has spent upwards of $950,000 in campaign funds in the
past year with eleven law firms in 12 states for legal
resources to block disclosure of any of his personal
records. Mr. Kreep indicated that the investigation is still
ongoing but that the final report will be provided to the
U.S. attorney general, Eric Holder. Mr. Holder has refused
to comment on the matter.
Mr. David Emery of the website Ask.com tracks these types of
disinformation campaigns. Here's what he has to say about
all this:
Analysis:
Hoax. The original April 1, 2009 posting date suggests it
may have been intended as an April Fools prank, but given
that the text does little else but parrot actual tenets of
the so-called "Birther" movement (the folks who claim Barack
Obama is ineligible for the presidency due to a forged or
invalid birth certificate), it barely qualifies as satire.
Is it really an AP news story?
No. The Associated Press ("AP") never published such a story
in any real newspaper, nor on any real wire service. It can,
however, be found posted and reposted on hundreds of anti-
Obama blogs and websites.
Did a group called "Americans for Freedom of Information"
release Obama's transcripts?
No. The organization doesn't exist or didn't at the time the
above message first began circulating, at any rate. A
similarly-named website went up after the fact, but there is
no evident connection between the website and the fake news
story.
Has anyone released Obama's Occidental College transcripts?
No, they haven't been released, nor has any court of law
"ordered" Obama's transcripts released. Source: Occidental
College
Did Obama attend Occidental under the name "Barry Soetoro"?
No. Soetoro was the name of Obama's stepfather, but there's
no evidence he attended college under that name. Fellow
alumni quoted in the press remember him as "Barry Obama." An
Occidental College spokesperson told there are no records
showing that Obama used his stepfather's last name.
Did Obama attend Occidental under a Fulbright Scholarship
for Foreign Students?
No. According to news sources, Obama did attend Occidental
on a scholarship, but it wasn't a Fulbright scholarship, let
alone a Fulbright designated for foreign students. The
Fulbright Foreign Student Program is for Master's Degree and
Ph.D. candidates only. Obama was neither. He couldn't have
been awarded a Fulbright scholarship for foreign students.
Source: Fulbright Program.
Did the Daily Mail discuss these revelations in a news story
entitled "Obama Eligibility Questioned"?
No. No such story turns up in a search of the London
newspaper's archive.
Did the Supreme Court agree to hear arguments on Obama's
eligibility?
No. The Supreme Court refused to consider the Donofrio case
(not to mention every other Obama citizenship case submitted
to date).
Did Gary Kreep of the United States Justice Foundation
release a study showing Obama has spent $950,000 in campaign
funds to fight litigation over his legitimacy?
I've found no record of any such study being published. The
foundation does exist and its Executive Director is indeed a
man named Gary Kreep, but he is on record as saying the
above story is a hoax.
Independent Backlash Building Over Perceived "Loyalty Oath"
During 2009, Obama operatives made off-year "block walks"
throughout the urban Northeast "Bos-Wash corridor" to
maximize support for the President's policies and
objectives. Named "Organizing for America," the program
includes a "pledge of support" for prospective contributors.
Here is the way it reads.
"President Obama's plan will rebuild and renew America by
creating jobs and investing in the three areas most critical
to our future:
"Energy - Transforming America's economy to run on clean and
renewable energy in order to create new American jobs and
industries;
"Health care - Comprehensively reforming health care so that
families, businesses, and government are relieved from the
crushing costs that impede economic growth and prosperity;
"Education - Reforming and investing in America's education
system so that citizens are prepared to compete in a global
economy.
"I support President Obama's bold approach for renewing
America's economy. I will ask friends, family, and
neighbors to pledge their support for this plan."
Underneath that language is a block for a signature and an
optional pledge of donations.
Some former Obama supporters who have become disenchanted
with administration policies object to what amounts to a typical
straw poll indicating a measure of the support for Obama.
They are are seizing on this pledge and calling it a "loyalty oath"
that calls for prospects to pledge their fealty to Obama the
man and not the office of President or the Constitution.
They do not, however, quote the exact language of the
"loyalty oath" to which they refer. If pressed, they claim
it's on the internet or that they have mislaid the offending
document proffered at their door by a volunteer and cannot
locate the website references to the same thing.
This theme is growing in volume and intensity on poltical
blogs and websites across the nation.
A key component of a growing rallying cry for an independent
party to run a Presidential candidate in 2012, a precursor
signal of a voters' revolt that seeks to reject both
mainstream parties in favor of a vote-splitting movement
similar to the George Wallace phenomenon of 1968 or the Ross
Perot initiative that blocked out key elements of the
conservative vote and denied a second term to President
George H.W. Bush, it's one of many signs of the beginnings
of the 2012 Presidential campaigns.
Naturally, these campaigns began on election night,
November, 2008, as usual.
A streaming video on an Organizing For America website shows
volunteers visiting northern Virginia homes in an ultra-
green and upscale red-brick and picket fence neighborhood
that looks a lot like Fairfax or Falls Church while a
bespectacled young man in shirtsleeves explains to
volunteers how the organization would like to do business
door-to-door to gain contributions and make new friends in
the effort to re-elect President Obama.
One is hard-pressed to see any substance to the complaint
ventured by hard core conservative independents.
After all, a "pledge of support" is hardly the same as an
oath of loyalty to a certain political personality that will
be placed ahead of any other political consideration,
national, constitutional or political. A Nazi oath of blind
obedience to a Hitler this is not. It's about as innocuous
as a tithe pledge one may find proffered in any suburban
Protestant church, be it mega-media or mainstream.
jim@downdirtyword.com
throughout the urban Northeast "Bos-Wash corridor" to
maximize support for the President's policies and
objectives. Named "Organizing for America," the program
includes a "pledge of support" for prospective contributors.
Here is the way it reads.
"President Obama's plan will rebuild and renew America by
creating jobs and investing in the three areas most critical
to our future:
"Energy - Transforming America's economy to run on clean and
renewable energy in order to create new American jobs and
industries;
"Health care - Comprehensively reforming health care so that
families, businesses, and government are relieved from the
crushing costs that impede economic growth and prosperity;
"Education - Reforming and investing in America's education
system so that citizens are prepared to compete in a global
economy.
"I support President Obama's bold approach for renewing
America's economy. I will ask friends, family, and
neighbors to pledge their support for this plan."
Underneath that language is a block for a signature and an
optional pledge of donations.
Some former Obama supporters who have become disenchanted
with administration policies object to what amounts to a typical
straw poll indicating a measure of the support for Obama.
They are are seizing on this pledge and calling it a "loyalty oath"
that calls for prospects to pledge their fealty to Obama the
man and not the office of President or the Constitution.
They do not, however, quote the exact language of the
"loyalty oath" to which they refer. If pressed, they claim
it's on the internet or that they have mislaid the offending
document proffered at their door by a volunteer and cannot
locate the website references to the same thing.
This theme is growing in volume and intensity on poltical
blogs and websites across the nation.
A key component of a growing rallying cry for an independent
party to run a Presidential candidate in 2012, a precursor
signal of a voters' revolt that seeks to reject both
mainstream parties in favor of a vote-splitting movement
similar to the George Wallace phenomenon of 1968 or the Ross
Perot initiative that blocked out key elements of the
conservative vote and denied a second term to President
George H.W. Bush, it's one of many signs of the beginnings
of the 2012 Presidential campaigns.
Naturally, these campaigns began on election night,
November, 2008, as usual.
A streaming video on an Organizing For America website shows
volunteers visiting northern Virginia homes in an ultra-
green and upscale red-brick and picket fence neighborhood
that looks a lot like Fairfax or Falls Church while a
bespectacled young man in shirtsleeves explains to
volunteers how the organization would like to do business
door-to-door to gain contributions and make new friends in
the effort to re-elect President Obama.
One is hard-pressed to see any substance to the complaint
ventured by hard core conservative independents.
After all, a "pledge of support" is hardly the same as an
oath of loyalty to a certain political personality that will
be placed ahead of any other political consideration,
national, constitutional or political. A Nazi oath of blind
obedience to a Hitler this is not. It's about as innocuous
as a tithe pledge one may find proffered in any suburban
Protestant church, be it mega-media or mainstream.
jim@downdirtyword.com
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