Democrat Slush Fund Pays For Anti-Tea-Party Campaign

This is so typical of liberals, who can do nothing by actual grassroots, because their policies are too unpopular. They demonize their political opponents, and then pretend their own positions are more popular than they are, by using bought and paid for supporters, (astroturf).

Fox News has uncovered the latest scam:

A seemingly grassroots organization that’s mounted an online campaign to counter the tea party movement is actually the front end of an elaborate scheme that funnels funds — including sizable labor union contributions — through the offices of a prominent Democratic party lawyer. A Web site popped up in January dedicated to preventing the tea party’s “radical” and “dangerous” ideas from “gaining legislative traction,” targeting GOP candidates in Illinois for the firing squad.

“This movement is a fad,” proclaims TheTeaPartyIsOver.org, which was established by the American Public Policy Center (APPC), a D.C.-based campaign shop that few people have ever heard of.

But a close look reveals the APPC’s place in a complex network of money flowing from the mountainous coffers of the country’s biggest labor unions into political slush funds for Democratic activists.

Here’s how it works: What appears like a local groundswell is in fact the creation of two men — Craig Varoga and George Rakis, Democratic Party strategists who have set up a number of so-called 527 groups, the non-profit election organizations that hammer on contentious issues (think Swift Boats, for example).

Fox reports that public records show a number of political shops listed at Suite 1102:

…most of which are essentially clones of one another, but all of which have offered money — from measly thousands to game-changing millions — in state-level elections across the country.

***

That means that taxpayer dollars, sent up as union dues, have been going to fund a host of Democratic causes and help quash the tea party movement.

What’s more, Varoga and Rakis are not actually present in Suite 1102. That is the office of their lawyer, Joseph Sandler, a longtime general counsel to the Democratic National Committee.

Jennifer Rubin notes that while legal, the practice is deceitful:

Fox has the list of donors, which comprises a set of interlocking slush-type funds that pay for the anti–Tea Party campaign. The largest of these is the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME,) which has kicked in a total of $9.9M in a single year to two funds that provide the cash for the non-grassroots movement. Yes — government workers’ money is being used to fend off Tea Party protesters.–

It will be amusing to watch the  Democrat astroturf campaign accuse the tea party movement of being an Republican astroturf campaign.

You know it will happen.

John Kerry Determined To Slay ManBearPig

I’d call him a fraud, but that would be an insult to con artists everywhere. This is something lower, and more comical:

Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), who is leading a bipartisan effort to put together a compromise on energy and climate change legislation, has exhorted allies to act with greater urgency.

“I want you to go out there and start knocking on doors and talking to people and telling people, ‘This has to happen!’” Kerry said at a forum hosted by environmentalists last month.

“You know, if Tea Party folks go out there and get angry because they think their taxes are too high, for God’s sakes, a lot of citizens ought to be angry about the fact that they’re being killed and our planet is being injured by what is happening on a daily basis by the way we provide our power and our fuel and by the old practices we have,” Kerry told his allies.

He wants people knocking on doors….to inflame the citizenry about our country’s deadly, planet-injuring practices. That’s…really gonna happen.

Not.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has called moving the bill a “headache.”

Yes, especially in an already tough election year for Democrats.

Hat tip: Krakatoa at AoSHQ, who has all the latest Climategate links.

Team Obama’s Terror Policy: Why The System Isn’t working

What is going on with Team Obama’s terror policy?  His counter-terrorism adviser, John Brennen has been making a string of gaffes in trying to defend the administration’s handling of the Christmas bomber case.  His claim that Republican Congressmen were briefed about the Christmas panty-bomber, Abdulmutallab’s  Miranda rights, prompted the ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, Peter Hoekstra to charge that he’s “completely blown his credibility”. And now, Rep. Peter King is calling Brennen an “egomaniac” for his absurd and demeaning assertion that criticism of the administration helps al Qaeda..

Not good:

“An egomaniac” — that’s how Rep. Peter King of New York, the ranking Republican on the House Homeland Security Committee, describes John Brennan, President Obama’s deputy national-security adviser, after reading Brennan’s op-ed in USA Today that says criticism of the administration’s handling of the failed Christmas Day bombing serves the “goals of al-Qaeda.” It is “the most mindless, self-serving, and irresponsible statement that a homeland-security adviser can make,” King says.

It shouldn’t be surprising to Brennen that there would be criticism in the wake of two major intelligence failures in one year; the Ft Hood Massacre and the Christmas Day Bombing. Why are they lashing out?

There is something rotten in the state of Obama, and AJ Strata thinks he knows what it is; a change in the rules of engagement and surveillance methods that loosened scrutiny of what the administration deemed mere “extremists” as opposed to proven al Qaeda terrorists.  His well thought out analysis, based on a speech Brennen made last August,  is well worth a read:

In the case of the of the Ft Hood Massacre, ongoing terrorist task force investigations into Major Hasan were mysteriously shut down around the time a 3rd FIS Court request would be needed by the FBI to ascertain if the man was a threat to America. In the end the administration used some lame excuse to not continue to monitor Hasan – and he went on to kill 13 people and injure 30 more.

In the case of the Christmas Day Bomber on Flight 253, the administration was unable to connect a large number of visible dots, as if some new barrier had been erected that did not allow information to come together so the threat could be detected.

I knew these failures had to do with policies pushed by Holder, Brennan and Obama. All are on record opposing the hair trigger concerns of the Bush administration when alarms went off in the NSA. Their consistent claim was we could protect our nation and our civil liberties – as if we have a false choice between the right to privacy or right to life – and life loses!

But I could not put my finger on what exactly changed, until I went back to an August 2009 speech by the civi liberty ideologue who is pretending to be the President’s national terrorism advisor – John Brennan (H/T Daniel Pipes via Powerline). Last summer Team Obama was putting the final touches on their new and improved strategy to supposedly keep America safe. Including a lame national security plan that put Global Warming right up there with al Qaeda. Brennan was out touting these changes, with no clue about the disasters that were building – disasters they had just taken their eyes off of.

You could almost say “they took their eyes off the ball”. Read the whole thing.

Previously:

Republican Congressmen Deny They Were Told The Pantybomber Was Given Miranda Rights

Video: Senator Kit Bond Slams Obama Administration’s Loose Lips On Intelligence

Was The Intelligence Gained By The Obama Administration From The Xmas Panty Bomber, “Actionable” or “Perishable”?

The Buck Stops With Obama Bush

Where Does The Buck Stop In The Knickerbomber Intelligence Failure?

Janet Napolitano Echoes Obama

Video: Ralph Peters On Deadly Political Correctness

Krauthammer: “Political correctness is not just a moral abomination, it’s a danger”

Obama’s Weird “Shout Out”

How Did The Army Miss All The Red Flags?