In a democracy, every person has a single vote. Unfortunately, what is becoming increasingly true is that someone with millions of dollars and the willingness to fund front groups has the ability to influence millions of votes.

Take the issue of the Iraq War - by any and every national poll, millions of Americans want the war to stop as they see through the lies that got us in the war, the lies that have kept us in the war and now with even the Iraqi leadership asking we leave, the vast majority of Americans see no reason to fund billions on dollars in war every month.

However, despite their wishes and their votes, the wishes of the people are countered by the wishes of the few, or in today's example, the wishes of one, Sheldon Adelson. Mr. Adelson is one of the very few wealthy "behind-the-scenes" manipulators that set up phony front groups and fund them with millions and millions of dollars to pollute our country's discourse, smear people, spread fear and lies and the worst kinds of dirty stories. Every politician knows that this ugliness could be directed at them if they dare try to fight this kind of power.

Where do these Republican, pro-war front groups get so much money?

Thomas B. Edsell's July 25 post at Huffington Post, titled Sheldon Adelson: GOP's Answer To George Soros? provides us with a few clues.

And now, according to Edsell,

Why does a wealthy Jewish casino owner, so rich that he is flown around in his own Boeing 767, support a veteran's organization? Probably because Vets For Freedom isn't really a veteran's organization, but a Republican Party front group working to elect John McCain and keep the Iraq war going.

If Vets For Freedom was a veteran's organization, they would be front and center in holding John McCain responsible for voting against the new G.I. Bill? But they didn't say a word.

If Vets For Freedom was a veteran's organization, they would be concerned with the hundreds of thousands of returning wounded warriors and their need for care and assistance? But they're not.

In fact, Vets For Freedom has only one mission - build public support for continuing the war in Iraq and now it appears they really only have one donor - a hard line neoconservative who is determined to influence US foreign policy in the Middle East.

Adelson is also a major funder of Freedom's Watch, another Republican front group that exists solely to help wealthy individuals like Adelson get around campaign finance laws that are designed to protect our democracy from this kind of dollars-outweigh-votes corrupting influence.

These organizations are allowed to take unlimited donations and not disclose donors because they are supposed to be educating the public about issues, not polluting our elections with ads that support or smear candidates. But, of course, who in the Bush government is going to stop them from breaking our campaign finance laws to support Republicans and smear Democrats?

In Israel Adelson has purchased a newspaper that he uses to try to influence Israeli politics. According to some, he inspires resentment and fear there. A recent New Yorker article about Adelson says,

Post-Script: As we were about to publish it, news comes that Sheldon Adelson has hired Karl Rove with a mid six figure deal to help run "Freedom's Watch" another right wing front group.

We'd like to introduce the Vets for Freedom NewsLadder. Like all the NewsLadders that are up and running, this is a great place to find out all about an issue on one site with articles, blog posts, and videos linked up and voted up or down by readers like you.

At the Vets for Freedom NewsLadder we are linking to all of the stories and articles about this group and together we can ask, and potentially answer some very basic questions.

For example, there are lots and lots of stories about VFF supporting John McCain and wanting to stay the course in Iraq and keep our troops there literally forever, but how come there aren't any stories about VFF wanting John McCain to support the recent GI Bill?

Wouldn't a real veterans group be interested in that? Hmm.

Now, there are plenty of stories about VFF endorsing pro-war candidates but none about VFF endorsing Iraq vets who are running like Jon Powers in New York?

Wouldn't a real veterans group want to support veterans running for office? How odd.

And then what about Afghanistan -- where virtually every military group and veterans group agree, we should be doing more there.

Here are all of the articles about Vets For Freedom and what they think about Afghanistan.

Yes, a complete listing right there

We have recently written a few posts about Vets for Freedom. In our post, "Vets for Freedom Says Thousands Of Donors -- We Count Five", we asked how a group that had only five donors and $2050 in contributions in the most recent reporting period could say their 501c4 arm had "thousand" of donors and donations of over $1.5 million.

In our post "25,000 Members" But Only 5 Donors? Is This The New Math?" we noted the low traffic at their website and again asked about their claim to have "thousands" of donors. We urged the media not to fall for their "thousands of donors" line.

Soon we are going to write more about this "veterans" group. We have been looking into where this "veterans" organization stands on veterans issues. Early indications from the NewsLadder indicate that well, they don't.

We encourage everyone -- from the left and the right -- to join this effort and go sign up at the Vets For Freedom NewsLadder. This way people can see the stories and decide for themselves about the group.

Earlier this week, we wrote about the Republican group, Vets For Freedom, and their ability to run $1.5 million dollars in TV advertising with seemingly no support.

In our blog post, we noted that the founder of the group was claiming thousands of donors. And the group claims to have 25,000 members. A number which if true might give a hint of credibility to their claims. However, when it is becoming increasingly clear that more and more real veterans are coming out in support of Barack Obama, is it possible that VFF actually has 25,000 members?

Well, we're not from Missouri but frankly, we'd have to see the membership roster to even believe that they have 2,500 members, why?

First, in their last report, they have exactly 5 donors listed. One, two, three, four, five. So unless their marketing efforts are truly horrific, to the tune of a .00000005 response rate, we have to believe that their member list is slightly inflated.

Second, if you look at their web site traffic on public sites, you'll see that the traffic is very very light; with some recent days in May hovering around zero, wouldn't a 25,000 member person organization have more than a couple of thousand total visits a month?

Unfortunately, many news organizations are taking the 25,000 numbers as a fact versus a 'claim' -- if we claimed that a million people read everything we wrote, it wouldn't make it true -- but who knows maybe people would start writing that -- just like we are seeing these.

There's an old expression, a lie can get halfway around the world before the truth gets its shoes on, and today from the Guardian in London, we have proof.

On the other hand, if Vets For Freedom really does have 25,000 veteran members, we'll post the whole membership list right here, just send us the names guys, we'll put everyone up.

After all, we can easily fit in five names right here.

In a recent story about Vets for Freedom's new campaign in support of Republican Presidential candidate John McCain, the Virginia-Pilot quoted VFFs Chairman Pete Hegseth on donor disclosure.

So what's the takeaway? On one hand, we have a 527 group with a total of $2,050 in donations, not enough to pay for Mark Penn's coffee break, and on the other we have a charity that legally can not be involved in direct political action? What's happening?

Well if you have "thousands" of mystery donors unreported but supporting John McCain's campaign and suddenly, a small fringe front group with just 5 real donors has over $1.5 million dollars to run a television campaign and there are plans for a major push this fall.

We're betting this is nothing more than a conduit for one or two very large donations intended to get around election law to the benefit of candidate McCain.

The Washington Post's blog The Trail tried to pin Hegseth down on why this "non-election" group is advertising with McCain's message in swing states important to McCain, and only just before an election with McCain as a candidate.

From the story,

What Hegseth didn't mention is that VFF's ads were bought immediately after the McCain Campaign stopped advertising.

What Hegseth didn't mention is that VFF is supporting candidates across the country, but surprise, none of the Iraq War or Vietnam veterans who are running like Jon Powers or Charlie Brown.

What Hegseth didn't mention is that there are real veterans groups with real veterans signing real petitions and supporting a candidate, only those real veterans, are supporting Barack Obama.

The only thing Hegseth could do was concede that the message in the ad is almost identical to McCain's on the stump -- the surge worked; let's continue the war until we win. He said McCain has been the "strongest advocate" for the veterans of the two wars.

Which is about as believable as McCain's claim that real veterans groups support him.

Since 2004, we have been very involved in investigating, exposing, and uncovering the roots and exposing the tactics and lies of the right-wing smear machine. James was involved not only in John Kerry's campaign, but also in the Truth and Trust Team, a group of Kerry friends and family who attempted to fight back against the Swift Boat Veterans.

Dave, of course, followed the campaign and those attacks closely, and then worked with James and others, including our friend, Taylor Marsh, on The Patriot Project in 2006. Created by John Kerry, David Thorne and others, The Patriot Project helped veterans such as Joe Sestak, Patrick Murphy and John Murtha defend themselves -- even looking into previous attacks on John McCain. We also were part of the team that exposed the Economic Freedom Fund, a group created with a $5,000,000 donation from Bob Perry that attacked moderate Democrats, primarily in red states.

Why do folks like Bob Perry give money like that? It's strictly business.

Continue reading "Watching Freedom's Watch: The Donors" »

James Boyce will be a guest on the Mario Solich Show, Los Angeles AM 1150, 4:20 pm Pacific time talking about the California Newsladder.

Message to Congress: No one believes Bush and this is dangerous to the country!

There is an urgent warning today from the FBI, that Al-Qaeda might attack shopping malls over the holiday season. See Exclusive: FBI: Al Qaeda May Strike U.S. Shopping Malls in LA, Chicago,

But what if it's true?

Meanwhile, hardly a day goes by without another dramatic statement from Bush or Cheney claiming that Iran poses a grave threat to the world. But few bother to listen anymore. People just roll their eyes. Bush cried wolf over Iraq. Bush raised the terror threat level and announced arrests or warnings for political purposes. Bush pumped fear into the country to win elections.

And now another warning.

But what if it's true?

Listen up, people! The FBI is warning about an al Queda attack on shopping malls this Christmas and almost no one will pay attention because no one believes this government anymore. Everyone has seen them manipulate terror threats, pump the fear for elections -- or just to get another capital gains tax cut passed.

Bush has lost credibility, but the world remains dangerous. Congress must act! Congress must remove Bush and Cheney for lying to the country to start a war. Congress must restore the public's trust in our country's leadership. The current situation is dangerous. If the government says we are about to be attacked we need to be able to believe them and act on it, instead of rolling our eyes and wondering how these clowns think they can get away with more of this fear-pumping. Because there just might BE a time when we ARE about to be attacked.

One more time: Congress, stop posturing. Stop worrying about the political fallout. Start doing what is right for the country. Bush and Cheney have to be removed from office because they lied to us to get us to support war in Iraq, and now no one believes the government, and this is dangerous.

Republicans are circulating a new smear, saying that Democratic Congressional staffers advised aides to get vaccinations before visiting NASCAR events. It is, of course, just a lie designed to drive the "elite limousine liberal" and "Democrats hate regular people" narratives.

In fact the aides were visiting "health care centers, detention facilities and other operations where they could be exposed to communicable diseases" and the immunizations are routine.

The Drudge Report has been headlining the smear for a several days. Of course Republican talk-radio has been running with it. Here are just a few examples of the spread of the smear:

FOX: Aides immunized before NASCAR race,

And days after the lie was refuted, the lie continues to spread:

Atlanta TV: Congressman Insults NASCAR Fans

Indianapolis: NASCAR races danger to government workers?

One way the Republican machine spreads this stuff is posting to forums. And here is an example of a "regular person" posting a comment in a sports forum:

If Al Gore Is awarded the Nobel Prize he WILL be smeared. There is no question about it.

On May 15, 2007, we wrote a post titled, We Guarantee Al Gore Will Be Attacked Next Week, We Absolutely Guarantee It. We wrote,

Continue reading "Al Gore WILL Be Smeared" »

On January 22, 2007, as Senator Clinton went viral with her announcement that she was, essentially, running for The White House, we noted that her first challenge was to shatter the prism of the right. We wrote,

Continue reading "Hillary Clinton: Mission Accomplished." »