Snark of the week award to Jon Stewart

Jon Stewart sweeps the snark awards for this takedown of Peggy Noonan.

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
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I could have done without the Peggy Noonan is like your mother when… part. But his rendition of Iran-Contra? Priceless.

Ornstein’s swan song: GOP sucks

20 years too late, Norm Ornstein sees the light, The Hill

There are no more moderate or liberal Republicans — the Sherwood Boehlerts, John Porters, Amo Houghtons and Michael N. Castles are long gone. What now passes for a moderate would have been considered a bedrock conservative in the early 1990s.

The House GOP has veered sharply, even drastically, to the right from what already was a pretty rightist center of gravity.

But more important has been the attitudinal change. Respect for the institution of Congress — much less for the framers’ vision of policymaking through deliberation, debate and an effort to find common ground, or at least grounds for compromise — has been replaced by obduracy, contempt for compromise and a level of demonization of the other side, starting with the president.

The ‘wingers are just doing what their masters tell them to do. Wreck government so that corporations and the wealthy can rule.

Gambling mogul Adelson’s wife used non-profit for political donations/Story retracted by Truthout (updated x 3)

Update, 1/31/13. I have received an e-mail from Dina Rasor of Truthout stating that this story has been “retracted.” I asked to have a statement I could link to at Truthout to close this issue. I have not yet received a response. She informs me that Truthout published a retraction but only kept it up for one day. However, our readers should be aware that apparently Truthout does not stand behind the statement that political contributions came from the Adelson Clinic [added: or The Las Vegas Sands Corporation]. Therefore, there is no reason to think that the philanthropic mission of the clinic was compromised or that any laws or regulations are broken.
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Danny Weil, t/o

According to Opensecrets.org, The Adelson Clinic for Drug Abuse Treatment and Research was the fourth largest contributor to right-wing political action committees (PACs), political parties and outside spending groups in the nation in 2012; the organization contributed over $24 million to these groups.
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Online news site, influenceexplorer.com reported in 2012 that Dr. Miriam Adelson and the Adelson Clinic contributed $22.5 million to the following political actions committees: $12.5 million to Winning Our Future, $5 million to Restore Our Future, $ 2.5 million to Young Guns Action Fund, and $2.5 million to the Congressional Leadership Fund.
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Although the clinic is a stated non-profit organization, it makes massive contributions to conservative political groups that raise questions about its philanthropic mission.

Mrs. Adelson and the Clinic have declined to respond to inquiries about how a non-profit could be a political funding vehicle.
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As discussed in comments below, the story has disappeared from Truthout’s archive. An attempt to contact Truthout has gone unanswered.

As also discussed in comments, OpenSecrets.org does indeed list The Adelson Drug Clinic as the source of millions of dollars of contributions. However, looking at the OpenSecrets data in more detail, I am persuaded that this is a misreading of the data. OpenSecrets lists $24,086,600 of contributions for the 2012 cycle. It indicates that these came from individuals, not from PACs. A search by individual for Adelson, Miriam of Nevada comes up with $42,122,900 in contributions. It looks as if the first query aggregates by organization. So it seems likely to me that Truthout mis-read the OpenSecrets data.

Naturally, this can’t be regarded as fully resolved until Truthout issues a correction or re-affirms the story. And the main thrust of the story–that one individual can pour tens of millions of dollars into political campaigns, thereby making a mockery of American democracy– stands. Regrettably, it is entirely legal for the political process to be corrupted in this manner, or so says the Supreme Court. That doesn’t make it right.

I’ll continue to follow this and add information as it becomes available.
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Update, 1/29: I have again contacted Truthout. As far as I can tell, they have not yet issued a retraction or correction. If and when they do, or when they respond to my inquiry, I will add that information.

Anti-democratic and proud of it: the GOP boasts about holding House despite getting fewer votes

Via MaddowBlog, the Republican State Leadership Committee brags about how unpopular the GOP is:

Farther down-ballot, aggregated numbers show voters pulled the lever for Republicans only 49 percent of the time in congressional races, suggesting that 2012 could have been a repeat of 2008, when voters gave control of the White House and both chambers of Congress to Democrats.

But, as we see today, that was not the case. Instead, Republicans enjoy a 33-seat margin in the U.S. House seated yesterday in the 113th Congress, having endured Democratic successes atop the ticket and over one million more votes cast for Democratic House candidates than Republicans.
…
all components of a successful congressional race, including recruitment, message development and resource allocation, rest on the congressional district lines, and this was an area where Republicans had an unquestioned advantage.

Through clever gerrymandering, they also held state houses in Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

And, according to Rachel, they are going to use their control of the state houses to make all presidentially-blue states split their electoral college votes. If they had been able to do this in 2012, Mitt Romney would have had an electoral college landslide.

Sounds like a winning strategy, ruling people against their will. Right up until the revolution, of course.

Aptly said, sir

Hunter at DK:

Going down the list of numbers from PPP’s post-election poll, there’s quite a bit of encouraging news to be had. David already covered two of the specifics, but here they are again just to review:

49% of GOP voters nationally say they think that ACORN stole the election for President Obama. We found that 52% of Republicans thought that ACORN stole the 2008 election for Obama, so this is a modest decline, but perhaps smaller than might have been expected given that ACORN doesn’t exist anymore.

This is outstanding news. Despite not actually existing, ACORN appears to be just as effective at secret conspiracies to steal elections as they were when they did exist.

And these are the people that Obama is supposed to compromise with. What happens when reality and anti-reality collide?

Walker edges ever closer to indictment

(Image of convicted Scott Walker aide Timothy Russell from Wisconsin State Journal)

Steve Schultze of Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, via Giles Goat Boy at DK:

Timothy D. Russell, a former aide to Gov. Scott Walker, pleaded guilty Thursday to embezzling more that $21,000 from a nonprofit group that raised money for veterans.

Prosecutors charged Russell, 49, in January with stealing from a nonprofit that Walker assigned him to lead to raise funds for veterans and the annual Operation Freedom picnic the governor hosted while he was Milwaukee County executive.

Russell also was charged with stealing smaller sums from campaigns of two Milwaukee County Board candidates. Those counts were dismissed as a part of a plea bargain, though Russell acknowledged he had committed those thefts, as well.

Assistant District Attorney Bruce Landgraf said prosecutors will recommend a prison term of up to 2 ½ years followed by 2 ½ years of extended supervision…
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it was revealed in another case that he played a role in setting up a secret computer system in the county executive’s offices that was used for campaign work.

Dee Hall, Wisconsin State Journal:

The governor on Monday said he is “absolutely” confident he is not a target of the investigation.

Wal-Mart: Always low wages

Via ql at Eschaton, USAT:

[Elizabeth Paige] Laurie, the granddaughter of Wal-Mart co-founder Bud Walton, has returned her degree, nearly a year after Elena Martinez told ABC’s 20/20 that she had written term papers and done assignments for Laurie for 3 1/2 years.

She paid $20,000 for how many hours of work?

(To be fair, I don’t know if Laurie is a Republican, but the Walton family does lean Republican, in the same manner that a park bench leans horizontal).

Lying for Jesus, True-the-vote style

Joseph Mismas, Plunderbund, via War on Error:

Yesterday we reported that True the Vote was attempting to place observers at precincts in Central Ohio, focusing on African American districts. We also noted that there might be some problems with the forms they submitted to the Franklin County Board of Elections (FCBOE).

The FCBOE met today and determined that True the Vote had likely falsified the forms submitted for general election observers. The new observer forms, filed over the past few days by True the Vote representative (and Hilliard Tea Party Member) Jan Loar, used candidate signatures copied from a previous set of forms filed in early October

All but one of the six candidates whose names appeared on the original form had withdrawn permission to use their signatures prior to the submission of today’s forms. During the BOE meeting Candidate Terri Jamison spoke up to say her name was “forged” on the latest round of forms.

The form for appointing observers reads ‘election falsification is a 5th degree felony’. Election officials have confirmed that there will be a post-election investigation of True the Vote.

Plunderbund is doing good work out of Ohio.

More vote fraud!

Via Atrios:

A Clackamas County [Oregon] elections worker is under criminal investigation for tampering with ballots, WW has learned.

The underlying allegation is that the woman, whose name has not been released, filled in blanks on ballots turned into the county for the Nov. 6 general election.

Sources familiar with the incident say their understanding is that the woman filled in a straight Republican ticket on the ballots where preferences had been left blank by voters.
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The Clackamas County Elections office is no stranger to controversy. Two years ago, Elections Clerk Hall mistakenly put a county commission race on the May ballot, although it was not scheduled until November.

Democrats are asking whether this is a one-off or part of a larger effort.

Aside: This is an example of why paper ballots are not a panacea.

Malevolence or incompetence? You decide. (mass purge in LaPorte Co., Indiana)

Via Don Briggs at DK.

Matt Fritz, The News Dispatch:

Back in 2011, some 800 voters were supposed to be purged from the La Porte County [of Indiana] voter registration system.

Instead, more than 13,000 got the boot and now the voter registration office is scrambling to get them online before Nov. 6.

Was it deliberate? Ask yourself what the GOP would say if the situation were reversed. Matt Fritz:

The Democrat party chair is asking the federal government to get involved in the wrongful purge of 13,000 voters in La Porte County last year.

Chairman John Jones said in a press release that he will be asking the U.S. Department of Justice Election Integrity Task Force to investigate exactly how the purge happened, which he said was an “effort led by Republican voters’ appointee Donna Harris, the wife of county Republican chairman Keith Harris.”

Malevolence or incompetence. You decide.