Patterico has discovered that Organizing For America actually provides a webpage for people to write letters to the editor. …is it possible that in some cases people are even paid to do this? Wouldn’t it be grotesque if they were being paid with taxpayer dollars?
Is the Department of Justice engaging in fraud, or is it simply trying to hide its propaganda? Those of you wondering how DOJ uses your tax dollars to enforce our nation’s laws might be interested to learn that Eric Holder has apparently hired former Democratic campaign bloggers to work at the department in what appears to be a secret propaganda unit. According to a story at The Muffled Oar website, the bloggers are housed in the Office of Public Affairs (the press office). Their job is to place “anonymous comments, or comments under pseudonyms, at newspaper websites with stories critical of the Department of Justice, Holder and President Obama.” One of the bloggers is former DNC and John Edwards staffer Tracy Russo, whose name was featured prominently on the department’s introduction of its new website on October 1.
At the same time that DOJ was refusing to answer questions about its outrageous dismissal of the voter-intimidation case against the New Black Panther Party and apparently paying government employees to post anonymous or pseudonymous comments or comments under false names attacking critics of the administration, the department declared that it was launching its new website “to increase openness and transparency in government.” In fact, Russo claims it is “just the first step towards creating the most open, accessible, and transparent Justice Department possible.” If that is true, how can DOJ justify these anonymous/pseudonymous postings? The misrepresentation is clearly material or DOJ wouldn’t go to such lengths to engage in it.
On the Democratic side, House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer and Reps. Chris Van Hollen and Daniel Maffei circulated this letter, asking lawmakers to sign it by 5:00 pm today:
Dear President Obama:
We are writing to express our concerns about General Motors’ and Chrysler’s decision to close profitable automobile dealerships across the country, and urge you to ask GM and Chrysler to delay final action on proposed closures pending further review of the decision to consolidate dealerships and the process by which Chrysler and GM selected the dealerships to close.
Closing these dealerships will put over 100,000 jobs at risk at a time when our country is shedding jobs at an alarming rate. We also question the criteria being used to determine which dealerships should be closed and the fundamental fairness involved in this effort. It is our view that the market rather than leaving it up to the manufacturers whose poor leadership contributed to their demise. Furthermore, we believe car dealers will be key players in any effort to revive the American auto industry.
We believe the dealerships are one of the auto industry’s key sources of strength and the manufacturers should continue to honor their agreements and contracts. The dealerships, and their more than 1 million employees, form personal relationships with customers that often contribute to brand loyalty and will be key to General Motors’ and Chrysler’s recovery following this economic downturn. While we understand the desire to reduce the number of unprofitable dealerships, no one has yet sufficiently explained the need to close profitable dealerships.
We recognize that efforts by your Auto Task Force prevented the total liquidation of General Motors and Chrysler, as well as their dealership networks. We commend your efforts to help these businesses survive these challenging economic times.
However, we are concerned that manufacturers are closing profitable dealerships to circumvent current contracts which could require expensive buy-outs under normal conditions. We are also concerned about allegations that dealers that have previously stood up for their rights against the manufacturers are being targeted by these closures. We believe that the forced closures of profitable dealerships needs to be scrutinized by the Task Force to prevent additional future financial loses to General Motors and Chrysler and job loses across the United States
We may consider legislative proposals to ensure that dealers and their employees are treated fairly, and we look forward to your timely response.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) asked about one specific dealership targeted for closure, which she noted has what seems like an good location near the Mall of America.
“Some of these dealers were actually doing pretty well,” she told the company chiefs.
Republican Senators, besieged by auto dealers who say their closures were unfair, wanted answers from the automakers, and the automotive task force:
Some lawmakers also sought to zero in on the role of the autos task force, complaining at times of a lack of openness.
Yesterday Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) sent letters to Chrysler chief executive Robert Nardelli and autos task force chief Steven Rattner about “the lack of transparency” surrounding the decision to trim Chrysler dealerships.
“Intervening in the bankruptcy process by exerting pressure on Chrysler to shed 789 dealership agreements is a misuse of the authority of the Task Force, giving credence to growing concerns the Task Force is not working to facilitate the restructuring of Chrysler but rather to nationalize the company by making decisions affecting the company’s day-to-day business,” Issa wrote.
Issa demanded a number of documents and records be presented to the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform for review.
Dealers want to know why their profitable dealerships are being closed when they’re not costing the automotive companies a penny:
Fausta, who’s been live-blogging at the convention, met a couple of Hillary delegates who had an interesting tale to tell of their experience at the DNC.
America’s VP (Clinton’s 18 Million PUMA Democrats thank and celebrate John McCain’s wisdom on the pick):
The profusely sweating Obama campaign is not above using PUMA-bait:
Hillary is set to campaign in Florida for Obama on Monday, a source familiar with her schedule tells me.
Though the details of the trip have yet to be worked out, and the trip’s message hasn’t been settled on yet, her planned campaigning suggests that the Obama team may start reaching out to Hillary more aggressively in the days ahead to counter whatever effects Palin has.
No doubt, the “EMPTY SUIT” will appreciate her efforts.
Cotillion sister, Jane Novak of Armies of Liberation has been blogging about Yemani affairs for years, lately taking up the cause of Yemani journalist, Abdul Karim al-Khaiwani.
His story gained widespread attention in the blogosphere, recently, as more and more bloggers took up the cause. Now, finally,the New York Times has taken notice, and Jane is featured in an article, today: A Living Room Crusade Via Blogging:
Jane Novak, a 46-year-old stay-at-home mother of two in New Jersey, has never been to Yemen. She speaks no Arabic, and freely admits that until a few years ago, she knew nothing about that strife-torn south Arabian country.
And yet Ms. Novak has become so well known in Yemen that newspaper editors say they sell more copies if her photograph — blond and smiling — is on the cover. Her blog, an outspoken news bulletin on Yemeni affairs, is banned there. The government’s allies routinely vilify her in print as an American agent, a Shiite monarchist, a member of Al Qaeda, or “the Zionist Novak.”
The worst of her many offenses is her dogged campaign on behalf of a Yemeni journalist, Abdul Karim al-Khaiwani, who incurred his government’s wrath by writing about a bloody rebellion in the far north of the country. He is on trial on sedition charges that could bring the death penalty, with a verdict expected Wednesday.
Go read the entire thing. Register if you have to. It will be worth the effort. And sign the petition to help free al-Khaiwani, if you haven’t already.
Also, she’s going to be on CNN at 2:30, pm (est?), and will be doing a radio interview with the BBC at 6:30 pm (est?). I’m guessing eastern standard time on both of those.
This is cross-posted at Little Miss Attila’s blog, as she has generously volunteered to lead this effort:
Several bloggers associated with The Cotillion (or “Tiara Media”) have begun a cookbook project. This promises to be the biggest and most luxurious bloggers’ food guide ever, notwithstanding our emphasis on speed, convenience, and how to get epicurean results when you can barely pry yourself away from your keyboard.
But we need your help. We’ll need other bloggers, frequent commenters, website designers, SAH/working parents, writers, and others who are pressed for time to tell us:
• your favorite recipes; and/or
• your favorite season of the year to cook, and why; and/or
• your favorite ingredient, and why; and/or
• your favorite songs to pay on your laptop or iPod while you’re cooking; and/or
• your favorite libation/mixed drink; and/or
• your favorite piece of kitchen equipment–what is the one tool they can pry from your cold, dead hands? AND
• your URL.
Also, please give us your real name, and SPECIFY IF WE CAN USE THIS IN THE BOOK, or whether we need to stick with your screen name.
Please send all your submissions to me; I’ll distribute them to the editors and recipe testers who are working on this book. We’ll need your material (the recipes especially!) by the end of the first week in June, as the book proposal goes out that same month–and the nature of the project will be shaped by your contributions!
Naturally, your blog will get a plug in the book, and you will be linked in the website we’ll be developing in late summer/early fall.
I’d like to see a strong moron presence in this recipe book, so please get in on this, morons. And try to contribute recipes with an emphasis on speed and convenience.
engaging in fraud, or is it simply trying to hide its propaganda? Those of you wondering how DOJ uses your tax dollars to enforce our nation’s laws might be interested to learn that Eric Holder has apparently hired former Democratic campaign bloggers to work at the department in what appears to be a secret propaganda unit. According to a story at The Muffled Oar website, the bloggers are housed in the Office of Public Affairs (the press office). Their job is to place “anonymous comments, or comments under pseudonyms, at newspaper websites with stories critical of the Department of Justice, Holder and President Obama.” One of the bloggers is former DNC and John Edwards
