Yesterday, Ami Bera wrote about Karl Rove protecting Dan Lungren. Today he went statewide. A shadowy Virginia-based group funded by the oil industry, tobacco companies, and health insurance industry -- and run by Karl Rove -- is trying to sway the outcome of the race for California Attorney General. This is an unprecedented move in a down-ballot race, and the money is being used to create cynical commercials for political gain.
Rove's group, the "The Republican State Leadership Committee," has purchased $1.1 million of TV airtime to run vicious ads attacking our campaign. And who exactly is funding this group's attacks? The very polluters, cigarette manufacturers, and insurance industry giants who I will stand up to as Attorney General.
Of course we are going to stand up to this outside money. You can contribute online to help us fight back.
To be clear, these are many of the usual Republican suspects. Organizations that fight against environmental and consumer protections are lining up to come to the aid of Steve Cooley, because they know that Cooley will fall into line with their agenda. (There is more in the extended diary.)
Today the Sacramento Bee reported on Dan Lungren's latest conflict of interest. While Karl Rove's shadowy front group tries to bail out Lungren in a tough election, the Congressman advocates for unlimited corporate campaign spending. Even worse, if Lungren does win reelection and becomes Chairman of the House Administration Committee, he would have jurisdiction over campaign finance regulation -- Lungren would be responsible for regulating the same shadowy corporations that are funneling hundreds of thousands of dollars to save him.
This news comes just one week after Karl Rove and Big Oil billionaires invaded our living rooms, laundering over $690,000 through Rove's shadowy slush fund, American Crossroads, hoping to hijack our election through false and misleading advertisements.
It's not surprising that Big Oil is protecting Lungren - he's taken $84,950 from oil and gas companies, then does their bidding in Congress - voting to give Big Oil $2.6 billion in tax breaks.
It's also not surprising that Karl Rove is working for Dan Lungren, since Lungren's opposition to transparency paved the way for American Crossroads. Lungren voted against the DISCLOSE Act to require transparency in corporate campaign spending, and applauded the Citizens United Supreme Court decision on the floor of the House. These actions set the stage for American Crossroads to launder billions from the mega corporations who are corrupting our government. Even more egregious, Lungren accepted $15,000 from Citizens United, and is even starring in an incendiary Citizens United film alongside Ann Coulter.
It's not surprising that Karl Rove and Big Oil want to keep Dan Lungren in Congress. But we have a surprise for them, because Rove and Lungren have forgotten the most important part of our democracy: you - and thousands of voters just like you. We don't support shadowy corporations polluting our democracy, and we won't stand by while Karl Rove tries to hijack our election.
You are the strongest weapon we have against American Crossroads, and we need you now. Please, support us in any way you can, and together, we will fight back against Karl Rove and his corporate billionaires, and we will bring the kind of change our country needs.
Hi everybody!
Last time I checked in, was right after the East Bay Express article about Project: Courage and Consequence. Our grassroots funded LP/Digital Download record with the same title as Karl Rove's book, set to come out the week before.
The attention from Calitics was well timed and much appreciated.
however, we still need your help!
For one thing, if you live in the bay area, you can attend the record release show at the Elbo Room on wednesday:
Also, we are now to the FUN PART, where we get to mess with Karl Rove big time.
More under the cut:
(neutron is a long-time friend of this blog, and a talented musician to boot. - promoted by Brian Leubitz)
Wow! It's been a crazy month, but with 3 days to go, we are 47 pre-orders away from funding Project: Courage and Consequence COMPLETELY on grassroots funding. The fun part is coming...
Karl Rove is coming out with a memoir called "Courage and Consequence". We are putting out a compilation LP by the same name that is coming out before his book. Songs about, pertaining to, or answers to Karl Rove specifically. We are going to culture jam his memoir and wreck his special day by dominating google results, amazon sales, etc.
We also are making a hell of a compilation.
This is a completely grassroots effort funded by donations and pre-orders.
If you would like to help, please go to http://www.karlrovebook.net $948 or 42 pre-orders of $20 each to go! There is still time.
Great article in this weeks East Bay Express (I'm even on the top right of the cover) about the Project.
It's pretty simple. Karl Rove is a treasonous jerk, and he's putting out a memoir pretty soon. So you are going to be seeing good ol' Turdblossom all over every talk show spreading his lies. Here's what we're doing.
Remember this:
Pretty cool, right?
Well we're doing the same thing, with this:
Help wipe that smug smile off his face, but not by a competing book, it's a rocking compilation LP and digital download album OF THE SAME NAME coming out BEFORE his book.
We need about $3000 to do this right, we're 1/3 of the way there at the time of this writing, and YOU can help.
So Debbie Cook and Dana Rohrabacher debated yesterday afternoon. I could write 1000 words about it, but I could also just provide you with this picture, which says it all:
As in, "I can't believe I actually have to run for my seat."
But if you want to know about the substance, Todd Beeton, who was there, has a writeup.
But even though crazy Dana is always likely to say some crazy shit, and he did, what I took away from the debate most of all was how unabashedly progressive Debbie Cook is and how lucky we would be to have her in Congress. This is a fairly red (albeit getting bluer every day) district, one where you might expect the Democratic challenger to moderate her views for the electorate. Nope, not Debbie. I'll write about the debate more later, hopefully with video, but here are just three of the issues where Debbie shined today:
• On global warming, Cook, who is an energy expert, in response to Rohrabacher's global warming denier nonsense, asserted "The debate is over. I can't get into a discussion over climate change, to me it's just a fact, we need to move on to solving our oil depletion problems."
• On Proposition 8: "I strongly oppose Proposition 8, I am in favor of full marriage equality."
• And on healthcare reform, Cook advocated for a single-payer Medicare for all model. "Health care is a right every American should enjoy."
Yes, Crazy Dana denied global warming. Again. Not sure if he attributed it to dinosaur flatulence this time. But here's the actual discussion:
Rohrabacher went on to accuse those "who claim that humankind is changing the climate," including Cook and his other opponents, of fear mongering.
"[They are] trying to stampede us into policies that will take us towards technologies that just deal with carbon dioxide and have nothing to do with personal health," Rohrabacher said.
Cook, who led Huntington Beach in joining the U.S. Mayor's Agreement on Global Warming, dismissed Rohrabacher's claims, stating that the scientific debate over climate change had ended.
"Debating climate change is just a distraction from the real work that we all need to do," Cook said. "Humans are overtaking the ability of the planet to sustain itself. Now, we need to move toward a green future because that's the only thing that can save us."
Apparently, Rohrabacher's plan was to relate everything back to illegal immigration and the Wall Street bailout package, which he would have replaced with capital gains tax cuts and more deregulation, so I'm not seeing Mr. Populism in there.
Cook stayed on message and did not take the bait. Here was her explanation.
After the debate, Cook explained why she refused to go after the incumbent.
"It's not my style," she said. "You don't want to make the same mistake that the Republicans have made with McCain in going negative, negative, negative. I think it's quite apparent that he's done nothing for this district in 20 years. And if people don't understand that, me telling them isn't going to change anything."
"He's an a**," Cook continued. "I can't respond to him. He's a liar."
Yes, that Donald Segretti. The head of the "dirty tricks" division of the Nixon campaign, the guy who stole stationery from Ed Muskie and wrote all kinds of lies about possible Nixon opponents in 1972, alleging Scoop Jackson had an illegitimate child and Hubert Humphrey was guilty of sexual misconduct and Muskie had insulted Franch-Canadians. By the way, Segretti was a co-chair of John McCain's Presidential campaign in 2000. And he was Karl Rove's mentor in ratfucking.
Donald Segretti offered J. Timothy Gratz $100.00 per month, plus expenses, to co-ordinate these projects. Gratz agreed to work on the project and he was given an advance payment of $50.00. Gratz later told Anthony Ulasewicz that "although the whole incident seemed strange" he agreed to help "as most of the ideas he suggested seemed like they were worth doing anyway". However, Gratz claimed he told Karl Rove, Chairman of the College Republican National Committee, about this dirty tricks campaign. We now know that Rove himself was part of Segretti's campaign. In fact, he probably played a leading role in this dirty tricks operation. Rove had become friends with CIA asset, Robert F. Bennett in 1968. According to one report, Bennett became a "mentor of Rove's".
In 1970, Karl Rove used a false identity to enter the campaign office of Democrat Alan J. Dixon, who was running for Illinois State Treasurer, and stole 1000 sheets of paper with campaign letterhead. Rove then printed fake campaign rally fliers promising "free beer, free food, girls and a good time for nothing," and distributed them at rock concerts and homeless shelters, with the effect of disrupting Dixon's rally.
Nice company that Rohrabacher attracts.
Donate to Debbie Cook: Having the money to get her message out is all that stands between her and victory.
(I'm not a big fan of Prop 11. lindasutton does a good job of explaining the beast. - promoted by Brian Leubitz)
TRUTH NOW on Proposition 11...
... the fake redistricting reform brought to you by Gov. Schwarzenegger and his wrong-wing Republican gang
Want to live in a Red State? Want to have gridlock on redistricting in addition to the budget? Want to have the Republicans put in charge of "protecting" our coastline?
This is the reality of the so-called "Voters First" proposition being put on the ballot this year by Arnold and his Republican fat cat cronies. The only "voters" who are elevated will be the Republicans who are attempting to circumvent their declining registration statewide by fooling the voters into the idea that Prop 11 is "independent" and "non-partisan." You've got to hand it to them. They come up with such good titles that mean exactly the opposite!!!
I want to add to the analysis of the proposed California Republican power grab initiative. Should it pass, we could lose about 19 of California's 55 electoral college votes to the Rep candidate.
If the initiative qualifies for the June 2008 California primary election, we will of course fight it tooth and nail. But all is not lost if it passes. We can still win in 2008 in a landslide. We don't have to have Rep Presidents forever. However, we must nominate a candidate that can win in solid Red states - and the best candidate for that task is Bill Richardson.
Everyone else is doing such a great job on the budget that I don't have much to say on that issue except what Mark Leno said. But I will note that this issue of budgetary intransigence by radical Republicans is about to go national, and how we're dealing with it in California should be a lesson for the nation. I hope the Democrats are paying attention.
In his exit interview yesterday, Karl Rove tipped the hand the Republican strategy to resuscitate the President's approval ratings.
Mr. Rove also said he expects the president's approval rating to rise again, and that conditions in Iraq will improve as the U.S. military surge continues. He said he expects Democrats to be divided this fall in the battle over warrantless wiretapping, while the budget battle -- and a series of presidential vetoes -- should help Republicans gain an edge on spending restraint and taxes.
In fact, the President has been signaling this for a while, saying that he will veto any appropriations bill that doesn't fall in line with his spending targets. Never mind that Presidents don't set budget policy, or that Bush allowed massive spending increases when the Republicans were in charge of Congress. This is a play-to-the-base strategy to fire up conservatives by picking a massive fight with the Democrats over spending priorities. And it will essentially force the budget items to be decided by overriding the veto, with a... wait for it... 2/3 vote.
If you are looking for that one reason to convince you to stop by the Calitics Candidates page and contribute to Jerry McNerney, look no further than how he responds when Karl Rove targets him as the 3rd most vulnerable Democrat in the country.
(All fixed! Help the two campaigns before the Saturday deadline. - promoted by Brian Leubitz)
You may have seen the hysterical House hearing today with the head of the General Services Administration over their using federal property and taxpayer dollars for partisan campaign activities. If you haven't, here it is.
This is a scandal. But one interesting aspect is that the Republican playbook has been cracked open; we can now plainly see what Republicans Karl Rove believes need defending in 2008. And guess who pops up on the defense list? John Doolittle. And who's on the "2008 House Target" list? Jerry McNerney.
This isn't us at Calitics talking here, this is "the Architect." The one who has the "real math." And the one who's going to marshal vast resources against Jerry McNerney and Charlie Brown in 2008. The funding deadline is Saturday. You know what to do.
I want to take a second and write about Karl Rove. He is a seen as a savior of the right and is hated by the left. Some may ask though, this is a site about California politics why are you talking about a White House staffer?
The answer to that is simple. The Republican party, from the top to the bottom is controlled and dictated by Rove. From the phone jamming in New Hampshire, to the tampering of machines and manufacturing of lines in Ohio to voter fraud here in California is all orchestrated by the man that holds significant power in the George W. Bush White House. In fact protégés of Karl Rove, Steve Schmidt, Matthew Dowd and gang have all been brought in to run the Ahnold campaign.
James Moore and Wayne Slater, two reporters for the Dallas Morning News, who know Rove quite well from his days in Texas wrote the best selling book Bush’s Brain. They have now come out with a new book titled “The Architect: Karl Rove and the Master Plan for Absolute Power.”
According to Publishers Weekly (hat tip: TG at Political Wire) this book is a "bold follow-up to journalists Moore and Slater's bestseller, Bush's Brain, takes a provocative look at how Karl Rove used George Bush's various campaigns and presidency to engineer nothing less than the assertion of a long-term Republican hegemony and the complete dismantling of the Democratic Party."
The argument that Rove is a danger to democracy is not an argument that will sell on a mass level, but it is a reminder of what we are working against and should prove as motivation to stay active, strong and willing to fight to November.
