Good grief. What a list.

US government? US Army? I didn’t know that was possible!

Yuh, my question exactly.

that is some mavericky donor list.

I read yesterday that Obama’s average donation is now $86. It was in the $95 range during the primaries, so as he increases his breathtaking amounts, his average is going down. Millions of small donors…smells like democracy to me.

Me too. I understand how contributions could be bundled at the private corporations and listed as having come from that corporation. I don’t see how that would be possible with government agencies without a violation of the Hatch Act.

dept of defense? ok, this is disturbing. why are the defense wings of the govt contributing to presidential campaigns?

Department of Defense? WTF??

When I worked for the Feds a long time ago in a galaxy far away, there was this thing called the Hatch Act. I wasn’t even allowed to wear a campaign pen at work. Now they’re bundling up contributions from Civil Service employees.

Who stole my country?

I think that list must be broken down by “reported employers”.

McCain: we need to keep american jobs in america?

what jobs? I don’t think we can outsource fry cook jobs yet

Campaign pIn. More coffee…must get more coffee.

Same, and that is tax payer dollars!

Well that would make some since (if that is indeed the case)

OT – do you have a link to Dr. Brzinski’s youtoob from this morning?

“I’m a whole lot less worried about the “undue influence” of some $100 donor who didn’t correctly identify himself”

Unless this donor sent in green crinklies by mail, the campaign knows exaclty whose credit card was used.

This donors may be private, they are not anonymous.

Sure…had left it at the end of prior thread. Here it is:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21…..3#27278702

Two FDL Posts in a row…it is true, we can’t get enough Jane in our diet!

Apologies for going OT, this relates to the WV voting thread downstairs, but I was EPU’d and it’s important.

Go watch Dan Rather Reports about the 2000 election, the bad paper ballots and the mis-calibrated touch screen machines. Well worth the hour.

The Trouble with Touch Screens

Can’t get any more public financed than millions of individual small donors

Okay, that must be it. Civil servants who donated from their homes and listed their employer as DOD, etc.. Just a typical case of Joe the Civil Servant contributing against his own interests, rather than a violation of the Hatch Act.

How is this even legal?

Krugman this morning NYT: The Real Plumbrs of Ohio man

One of the most enjoyable aspects of viewing the sun setting on this never-ending campaign is the background noise generated by thug heads exploding over the differential in dollars coming into the two parties.

O/T The gov of Alaska is on MSNBC

Hey Jane,

Did you see that Judy “I Was Fucking Right” Miller is about to join the fever swamp ghetto of Fox News?

-G

When I bought Obama yard signs on Friday, had to put the cash in an envelope with my name and phone number. Purchased one as a gift for an elderly lady who had no cash and she had to do same.

My impression is that the Obama campaign is keeping excellent records.

Interesting concentration of Financial Industry Contributors, 11 of the Top 20.

should have read:

Warning. The gov of Alaska is on MSNBC

Top donors to the McCain campaign:

None of whom seem to be present at McInsane’s “rally” in MO this morning.

As opposed to Obama’s 100,000 – 175,000 crowd under The Arch – this looks and sounds like the entire crowd could get together after the speech and go have coffee at Denny’s afterward…

thanks.

Wait a minute – unless the boys in green are holding their own bake sales, that means that my tax dollars are going to McCain through a back door. I do not like that.

Did you see that Judy “I Was Fucking Right” Miller

Just a little fact checking for ya. Scoots Libby and aspens and all that jazz…

They deserve each other.

The campaign contribution search engines allow you to search by employer. It’s fascinating to see that many in banking (at least before their current crisis) maxed out to both sides.

$2300 is chump change to a lot of people in that line of work. Also, if you follow their names/home addresses, you can see that their spouses also maxed to both sides.

My pleasure … always happy to share articulate television (JoeScar excepted). *g*

1,801 DAYZ AND THE KILLIN’ GOEZ ON AND ON AND…

Citizen Hamsher and the Firepup Freedom Fighters:

Thanx again, Sister Hamsher, for another smack upside the head this AM…think about it, now the crazy fascist candidate for President who will return to the Senate if defeated seems ta be callin’ for public disclosure of the name and address of every Obama donor. Then think about pluggin that data base into the NSA system to mine communications of US citizens.

Now can we start usin the “F” word as in “fascist” for those masquerading as Repuiblicans and “conservatives”…I saw Vandenheuval on Tweety’s show last week and she ran so fast away from the obvious that I thought I was watchin’ a witness in front of the old House Unamerican Activities Committee. Wake up folks, these fuckers are serious and they won’t go away jest because we don’t vote for ‘em!!

KEEP THE FAITH AND PASS THE AMMUNITON, THE CURE FOR OUR SICK DEMOCRACY IS MORE DEMOCRACY AND 100 SPECIAL PROSECUTORS!!!

I think this means the donations are personal and from individuals whose employers are the government, military, banking etc.

This is a pretty disingenuous article, but I’m willing to give you the benefit of the doubt that you just didn’t bother to look at Obama’s:

Goldman Sachs $739,521
University of California $697,506
Harvard University $501,489
Citigroup Inc $492,548
Google Inc $487,355
JPMorgan Chase & Co $475,112
National Amusements Inc $432,169
Microsoft Corp $429,656
UBS AG $419,550
Lehman Brothers $391,774
Wilmerhale Llp $383,024
Time Warner $375,063
Sidley Austin LLP $370,916
Skadden, Arps et al $360,409
Stanford University $341,399
Morgan Stanley $341,380
Latham & Watkins $328,879
Jones Day $309,960
University of Chicago $294,237
General Electric $290,584

Many over lapping contributors, and of the ones that do they almost universally have given MUCH more to Obama.

I have no problem decrying the influence of these lobbies on McCain, but the seemingly unabashed denial of them with respect to Obama is somewhat troubling.

Every time I make a donation there is a line asking who I work for. Could this be how the DOD figure is arrived at?

what was tne phrase MoDo used a little while back? “Pea green with envy”?
They know where every penny of my campaign contributions came from.

Yeah, but i’m confused. Does that include the ones you had to give back, Mr. Mav’rick?

Lies 642

doing what?

I’m actually shocked/angry/disgusted that the Defense Dept and the Army are able to make political contributions at all! THAT should be banned. NO government office/department can be allowed to make donations to any candidate.

I’m a statistician, not a lawyer.

But from my understanding of the Hatch Act, it’s not legal. Not even close to legal.

If the summary reported is a tabulation by reported employer, then it might be legal. Under the Hatch Act, Federal employees are free to contribute to political campaigns, and even to work in them on their own time. What they are not free to do is anything that smacks of partisan politics on the job. In the office I worked in, that was broadly interpreted. No campaign pins, no discussions, nada. So lobbying your colleagues to bundle contributions would have been waaaaay outside the boundaries.

Nevermind. If this is simply by employer than I have no issue. I myself am paid by public monies (via grants for research) and I give money, and my employer would show as a public university.

ROFL

Producing a lot of homespun, upper midwest dialect glossorrhea, BFL.

Dontcha know.

misrepresenting one thing or another. but they switched back to McCain so he sould lie some more

Jane, looking forward to your thoughts on Judy and Fox.

Citizen ImperialFlow:

Indeed, good point as far as it goes…now let’s look at the physics of a donor base that has millions of small donors makin up a substantially larger amount that the corporate and compare that to a donor base that has the corporate money as basically the sole source. It would seem that the constituency represented by Obama’s donors is far larger and more likely to extract feilty down the line from Obama.

Try again, Citizen ImperialFlow…

sould = could

I had that thought as well, but Obama’s average donation is $86, which is way below McInsane’s average. The small donor far outnumbers the BigMoney donor for Obama, both in number of people and total amount donated, so Obama is more beholden to “average” Americans than to BigMoney.

The donations are listed by employer. People employed by the Army and the DoD gave to McCain. And Obama, I’m sure.

Congress Critter Steve Pearce (R-Big Oil) is running for the Senate here in NM (trying to replace Domenici.) Last month they brought the Mittster in to hold a campaign rally.

In Santa Fe (or to be fully correct, La Puebla de la Santa Fe de San Francisco de Asis).

When I heard about it, I asked if they holding the rally in the corner booth of the Denny’s on Cerillos Avenue.

American politics have been completely corrupted by money. Will Rogers was wrong. We have the worst government money can buy. McCain-Feingold was a limited, half-hearted, half-assed attempt at reform. Loopholes and workarounds were already in place for its restrictions even before the ink was dry.

Particularly egregious have been McCain’s own funding activities in this cycle.

First, he signed up for public financing in the primaries, received benefits from this by being put on the ballot in various states, set up a loan for his campaign based on this status, then opted out of public financing and didn’t exercise the loan. But the fact that loan was out there guaranteed that he could keep his campaign going through a critical period.

Second, having gone the public financing route for the general election, he is using the fig leaf that the RNC is running general ads when, in fact, it is running ads for McCain. That is, the RNC can run an ad against Obama as long as it also mentions another Democrat like Pelosi or Reid.

As everything else we have seen from McCain recently, this is just another unsubstantiated allegation thrown out in desperation which he hopes will either stick or distract from the nasty implosion which is the McCain campaign.

Funny how McCain is talking about stripping away Political Freedom of Speech amongst all those $100 donors…but has no issue with the wealthiest Americans being able to give $50K to the RNC, and $4600 to each Congressman/Senator each quarter (that can then be given to another politician), and unlimited moneys to 527’s and PAC’s.

I call “Bullsh*t”.

But if the Republicans really want to make this an issue…fine…lets get a Constitutional Amendment actually limiting the amounts that can be given…and cut out all the corporte/wealthy loopholes. And allow free advertising for all candidates on radio/TV.

McShame has said some truthful things on the trail over the last few weeks.
Both times he was roundly booed by his supporters.

Why isn’t anyone talking about the HUGE story involving a secret GOP lobby run by DCI and Doug Goodyear,whom John McCain hired this September to manage the GOP convention.According to AP story today, Freddie Mac paid DCI a GOP lobby firm $2 million to secretly target GOP Senators to vote AGAINST Hagel’s bill to try and regulate Freddie Mac. This is HUGE . WHY isn’t anyone talkin about this story involving 17 GOP Senators and secret money to DCI.Remember,Rick Davis’ firm was ALSO bein paid by Freddie Mac,too.

yes, there seems to be a common misunderstanding when this issue ever comes up. There’s a big difference employees of a particular industry or company that get bundled into a group on a reporting form, and corporate PACs spend huge amounts for their various candidates and causes. PACs and employees should not be equated.

WTF?

US Government $152,118
US Army $150,470
[…]
US Dept of Defense $118,125

Those can’t be legal. Can they?

McCain is trying to smother the Obama presidency in the crib. He’s getting an assist from the MSM that is clucking madly about bipartisanship and the ability to spend any money on domestic issues.

McCain is making George W. Bush look honorable in contrast.

-G

Except that the RNC isn’t running many McSame any more.

They’re worried about the down-ballot races.

But your point is correct: we desperately need public financing of election campaigns. We could look at Maine’s laws for ideas.

We’re tinkering with the idea here in New Mexico, but not fast enough.

How to fund it? How about with the punitive damage awards from civil trials? There’s no particular public good derived from giving fines punishing bad behavior on the part of corporation to the person wronged. That’s what actual damages are intended to do. Let the attorney have their cut of the punitives (limit it to 20%, maybe?) and put the rest into the public campaign finance kitty.

“The idea that his opponent’s low dollar contributions would be something that needed to be legislated against is, however, pure McCain.”

Hmm, attacking your opponent’s strength. Do I see the hand of Rove behind this? Yes, I believe I do.

re mccain’s complaint about not knowing where the donations were coming from – i thought the fec only kept track of donations of $200 or more. do i have that wrong?

gotta link? I would love to read more about that

linky please? thanks!

Yeah but, Obama isn’t bitchin’ about McCain’s donors. The meme all this weekend by the McCain surrogates was the “lack of transparency” on Obama’s part. Read: He’s a liar and a threat because he’s got scary scary donors.

it’s an empty complaint. He wants to cast doubt ont he ’sources’ of the campaign donations. Remember they are painting O as an outsider, a furriner. This works perfectly into that meme…a furriner being funded by furriners

You have it right.

you owe me a beverage *g*

There is a story at TPM.

about selise owing me a beverage? or are you referring to my #65?

Would there be any benefit from campaign spending caps – even without public financing?

then how do we know that obama’s donors average is $100 (as reported here yesterday) or $200 (as reported here today)? is there anyway to independently verify any of this?

here is the TPM link

your #65. Although I would love to see you and selise make the front page at TPM.

what’s your poison?

More ugliness taken out on supporters: tires Slashed at Obama Rally

Someone slashed the tires of at least 30 vehicles parked outside the Crown Coliseum on Sunday during a rally for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, authorities said.
Sheriff’s deputies are investigating. The tires were cut while people were inside the Crown Coliseum listening to speeches, said Maj. E. Wright of the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office…

Sarah Revis, who lives on Wilkes Road, said the slashed tires left several women, including a single mother and a toddler, stranded and upset. At least four tow trucks were sent to move the vehicles from the Crown, Revis said.

“This is an embarrassment to this city and to me as a citizen,” Revis said. “I’ve seen women out here crying and men cussing. This is a crying shame.”

I am not sure but everytime I go to one of the Obama pages it lists all my donations. They seem to be linked to my E-mail address.

some nice herbal tea if you please

LOL It would be nice to live in a world where the owing of beverages makes the front page of a political blog *g*

Probably no way to verify. Those numbers come from the campaign, I believe. An AP article in today’s paper (no link) says David Plouffe said the average donation was $86. When I donated to Obama, I had to list my employer, but there was a note that said, IIRC, that information was reported only if the donation was at least $200.

I guess it depends on what you’re drinking, and how much!

Campaign spending caps just force them to find ways around them. Witness the 528 organizations that sprang up from the weeds after McCain-Feingold passed.

Just a quick driveby to give my fellow patriot Wobblybits a big hug.

(((Wobs)))

I had to give up last night. I was too tired to factcheck and stay cool with some of the (ahem) word choices getting thrown out there. I went back to read just now and see it was a lot of passion on everyone’s part. I admire how you held your ground firmly and respectfully.

Peace to all firepup patriots.

see my #80. Though I have been known to do wheatgrass shots.

holy cow. thanks! that looks like a bill worth tracking down.

herbal tea is on me. hope someday to do it for real. *g*

thanks.

(((Dosido)) I think nerves were just frayed last night and well I give in to my lesser woman at times. We just have to remember we are all onthe same side and not to take our disagreements personally

I’ll hold you to that *g*

Yeah, it was a little like a family reunion and the ex husband walks in (or something). “What’s HE doing here?”

*g*

see y’all later.

Emptywheel has prepared a new thread with a new topic: MI Republicans Admit to Illegal Foreclosure Scheme, “Surrender” to Democrats

see ya. have a good one

In reference to the AP story on stealth lobby of GOP by Freddie Mac,WOW. has anybody made the connection YET that DCI,the lobby firm ,is ALSO a sister affiliate of FSL-the company who is doing McCain’s vile robocalls. And that on DCI homepage,it shows they have offices in DC AND Phoenix?

*shaking head*

And while true that by percentage Obama makes up less of his donation base from lobbyists than McCain, the reality is that despite Obama’s average donation being $86, it is nearly impossible for the bulk of private individuals to get access and unification of voice or motive that is ensured by the massive donations of those large corporations and institutions.

That in total Obama has more small contributors is a distinction without a difference when applied to the reality of how policy is made, and who fundamentally has access to politicians.

See above

Eeewww.

True story:

I had my appendix removed a few years ago. I forgot to the anesthesiologist to hold the Versed, please. So she gave me Versed (it’s an amnestic, messes with your memory so you don’t remember the OR.)

I came to consciousness slowly in recovery but my memory came back from recent past and distant past. At one point I could remember marrying my ex-, and being married to my wife. What I couldn’t remember was divorcing my ex- and marrying my wife. In my more-befuddled than usual state, I told the nurse I wanted to see my wife. NOW. I got agitated enough that she finally went to get her. By the time Mrs. BC got there my memory was working well enough that I remembered the divorce and marrying the right woman. But seeing my wife there for a few minutes was good for me.

Just say No to Versed.

I’m not too concerned with the idiotic over-the-top rhetoric from the McCain campaign. The idea that we should expect any less at this point seems somewhat absurd.

My greater point is that we should be afraid of both their lobbyist associations, and why I’m more troubled by Obama in this regard is that he’s been painted as some kind of populist-reformer, and that portrait has been accepted by vessel of identity politics; probably because we’re so utterly thirsty for anything not-neocon.

I’m concerned because Obama is demonstrably not a populist-reformer, and he’s more than likely going to have the same free reign of policy making that Bush did before him. The fact that we’ve turned the President into a policy-maker aside, troubling as that is, that kind of unilateral control isn’t going to benefit us, because the delusion that the democratic party is any less corporatist than the republican one is a fool’s paradise.

amen.

No one who’s paying the least bit of attention to Barack Obama thinks he’s a populist-reformer. Any progressive legislation that we need will have to come from us. It won’t much come from the White House.

As far as the President as policy-maker goes, the Executive has always held the reins of policy. There is nothing new about that.

Used to do the “organic” shots at the local co-op. Tried out this company for wheatgrass…
http://www.dynamicgreens.com/w…..grass.html

…and we’re customers for life. Great stuff and you save a bunch a money over the shots as well.

I suspect that if they thought people would understand it, they’d explicitly try to make the argument that shadowy figures are making multiple sub-$200 contributions, and thence the corruption. (And they probably think this is a reasonable line of attack because there are actual documented instances of Republican CEOs doing this.) Fortunately for us, that storyline is just too complicated to get across in a sound bite, so they can only make these insinuations that sound like sour grapes to anyone but hardcore wingnuts.

Then apparently very very few people are “paying the least bit of attention to Barack Obama.”

It’s the narrative proffered by the campaign, and the one accepted by a non-trivial number of supporters that I encounter everyday on the streets of Portland.

I wish there was an edit feature, so I could append this to my previous post.

My concern is that otherwise rightfully skeptical people have lost their skepticism, or at least temporarily shelved it, to foster the delusion that Obama is the agent of CHANGE that his marketing dollars and rhetoric supports, but his policy performance does not.

No, it’s not. It’s only a distinction without a difference if you believe that politicians want to be captives of their big donors. No, small donors can’t band together effectively to have the same influence as big donors, but having an official who, because they have a huge cushion of small donors to fall back on, can actually afford to tell a big donor to take a hike if they demand something in return for their money is a big deal.

While I’d prefer a world in which people who can afford to hire full-time lobbyists don’t have more influence than those of us who can’t, free speech does not allow us to distinguish between lobbying to inform a lawmaker and represent your point of view (which is just fine), and lobbying to apply pressure from a powerful industry, so we live with that. But the real corrupting influence is the money.

McCain fundraiser Harry Sargeant III accused of war profiteering …Oct 17, 2008 … A Florida billionaire and top fund-raiser for John McCain has been accused of a reprehensible form of war profiteering by the chairman of a …
news.muckety.com/2008/10/17/mccain-fundraiser-harry-sargeant-iii-accused-of-war-profiteering/5881 – 41k – Cached – Similar pages
Harry Sargeant – $70700 in Political Contributions for 2008Sargeant, Harry Mr. III DELRAY BEACH, FL 33483, Sargeant’s Marine Inc./President , $25000 … Sargeant, Harry III GULF STREAM, FL 33483, Self/Investor, $2300 …
http://www.campaignmoney.com/politica…..p?cycle=08 – 58k—————————————-Davis should provide some transparency on Harry Segeants bundled donations to the McCain camPAIN,and ,cc the explanation to Henry Waxman,ASAP!

Understand your point considering I was a campus campaign manager for Jerry Brown in 1992, and he limited his contributions to $100 max based on your exact point. Problem back then is that he couldn’t compete without the Internet for fundraising and while his 1-800 helped, and this provided some of the inspiration of Howard Dean’s Internet models of 2004 which helped inform Obama’s campaign today, Brown couldn’t generate enough to keep up with the DLC Clinton campaign. Jerry shocked everyone though with his 2nd place finish though!

I do think there is a difference though with Obama. Sure, while BigMoney will likely be able to get face-to-face meetings with Obama, especially considering a lot of those people are his advisers now, I do think Obama has shown in his actions a sincere effort to be informed by “average” Americans, those that have funded most of his campaign. He let a dissenting group (which I supported) organize through his own campaign Web site during the FISA fiasco, and even engaged us in conversation. Many of his proposals also show that he “gets” this, but only time will tell. Yes, there is a leap of faith on my part, but Obama gives me reason to believe more than any Dem Prez candidate I’ve been able to vote for in my lifetime on Nov 4.

Bundler Collects From Unlikely DonorsHarry Sargeant III, a former naval officer and the owner of an oil-trading company that recently inked defense contracts potentially worth more than $1 …
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/…..02_pf.html -

No, it’s not. It’s only a distinction without a difference if you believe that politicians want to be captives of their big donors. No, small donors can’t band together effectively to have the same influence as big donors, but having an official who, because they have a huge cushion of small donors to fall back on, can actually afford to tell a big donor to take a hike if they demand something in return for their money is a big deal.

And when do you think Obama will display the embodiment of this supposed reality, rather than the direct counter to it? FISA, Biden, Paulson-Obama bailout.

He has yet to take a principled stand for the rest of us, despite the massive amounts of money we’re giving him. Regardless of the quantity of money we give, the heterogeneous nature of our contribution apparently renders its efficacy null.

DUN & BRADSTREET $100,000
2008-03-31 UNION PACIFIC CORPORATION $100,000
2008-03-31 FREDDIE MAC $100,000
2008-03-31 AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION 100,000
2008-03-31 ANHEUSER-BUSCH $70,000
2008-03-31 Casino VISA USA, INC 0
2008-03-31 AMERICAN COUNCIL OF LIFE INSURERS $100,000
2008-03-31 ALLIANCE FOR SENSIBLE AIRSPACE PLANNING $90,000
2008-03-31 TRUEPOSITION, INC. $100,000
2008-03-31 MICRON TECHNOLOGY, INC $100,000
2008-03-31 THE VANGUARD GROUP, INC. 0
2008-03-31 CHRYSLER, LLC 0
2008-03-31 UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI $100,000
2008-03-31 AMERICAN PETROLEUM INSTITUTE $120,000
2008-03-31 PRIMERICA FINANCIAL SERVICES 0
2008-06-30 UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI 0
2008-06-30 TEVA PHARMACEUTICALS USA, INC. 100,000
2008-06-30 ALLIANCE FOR SENSIBLE AIRSPACE PLANNING $90,000
2008-06-30 AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION $100,000
2008-06-30 ANHEUSER-BUSCH $70,000
2008-06-30 AMERICAN COUNCIL OF LIFE INSURERS $100,000
2008-06-30 UNION PACIFIC CORPORATION 100,000
2008-06-30 PRIMERICA FINANCIAL SERVICES $120,000
2008-06-30 TRUEPOSITION, INC. $100,000
2008-06-30 Casino VISA USA, INC $100,000
2008-06-30 THE VANGUARD GROUP, INC. $100,000
2008-06-30 DUN & BRADSTREET $100,000
2008-06-30 AMERICAN PETROLEUM INSTITUTE $100,000 —————This is a lobbyist list of clients for William Timmons, tapped by McCain a couple of months ago to head his “transition” team into the Whitehouse. Timmons, it is said, was grifting Saddam Hussein after the first Gulf War, when Iraq was officially declared a rogue nation, and lobbying Iraq was a punishable offense. Two others working with Timmons WERE prosecuted,including one named TongSun Park. Remember him?

Thank you for the link. I had gone to TPM Election Central and TPM Muckraker, before I posted here but the article wasn’t there.

Thanks Jane.

digg

snark
Shorter McCain. We need comprehensive campaign finance reform that donations donations from registered voters and anyone who is not a corporations or in the wealthiest 5%.
/s

OK, I’ll try again.

snark
Shorter McCain. We need comprehensive campaign finance reform that restricts donations from registered voters and anyone who is not a corporation or in the wealthiest 5%.
/s

It was the lead story on the home page of optonline. Try optonline.net Don’t know if they’ve changed it.

Feather Larson & Synhorst DCI
From SourceWatch
(Redirected from FLS-DCI)

Feather, Larson & Synhorst DCI (FLS-DCI) are “Specialists in Telephone Contact Business.” The telemarketing company used to be known as Feather Hodges Larson & Synhorst DCI. In 2000, the Washington DC-based DCI Group was spun off from FLS-DCI.

FLS-DCI has been one of the largest corporate receipents of funds from the Republican National Committee in 2004. FLS-DCI has close ties to key White House advisor Karl Rove and others in the GOP.

FLS-DCI specializes in creating phony front groups to make it appear as if there’s a groundswell of support for its clients’ issues.

One of its most prominent front groups is Voices for Choices. This fake coalition of conservative groups is runing ads nationwide in support of AT&T’s key issues. AT&T, which has donated millions to the Republican Party and the Bush Campaign in 2004,[and John McCain ]- and whose general counsel served on Bush’s transition team, is one of FLS-DCI’s largest and most important clients.

Other FLS-DCI phony productions include Responsible Electronic Communications Alliance and Hands Off the Internet.

On its web site, FLS-DCI states:

“We use state-of-the-art technology to target and communicate with key constituencies. We have a reputation for connecting the right message to the right people. Our team has experience designing and implementing successful phone programs in all 50 states.

“Our client list consists of the last five Presidential Campaigns including Bush/Cheney 2000. We also provide services for the Republican National Committee, the National Republican Congressional Committee, and hundreds of Republican State Parties and candidates on all levels, as well as corporations, associations and other organizations.

Advisor to President George Walker Bush, Karl Rove’s endorsement of FLS-DCI reads:

“I know these guys well. They become partners with the campaigns they work with. From designing the program to drafting scripts; from selecting targets to making the calls in a professional, successful way they work as hard to win your races as you do.” Sourcewatch——————-As I said earlier, the vile robo calls are from the SAME firm that was secretly paid $2 million by Freddie Mac to lobby GOP senators to vote AGAINST regulating Freddie Mac. John McCain hired the CEO of that SAME lobby group DCI,Doug Goodyear,to organize his GOP convention last month. Remember,Rick Davis’ firm received over $2 million also, over a period of years from Freddie Mac.BTW, The DCI lobby firm has a home office in Phoenix,Arizona in addition to D.C

BTW, AT&T is one of the companies that gave those free cell towers to the McCains for their Sedona Arizona ranch just recently.