Swift Boat Liars are Back

[santamargarita]

This bunch of American hating right-wing-assholes have crawled from under their rock, again. This time let's sink these traitors immediately!

Research by The Nation into Federal Election Commission records of the group's top twenty donors reveals that they've been remarkably active in this cycle, contributing and bundling nearly $200,000 to presidential candidates. This does not bode well. During the last presidential campaign, the wealthy backers of Swift Boat Veterans for Truth--now rebranded as Swift Vets and POWs for Truth--didn't do their real dirty work until the general election, where as a tax-exempt 527 group they operated outside the restraints of direct campaign contributions. We may wish we were done with the Swift Boaters, but they aren't done with us.

In 2004 the top twenty donors all gave (with one exception) at least $50,000 to the group. The top three--Houston home builder Bob Perry, Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens and billionaire drugstore impresario and investor Harold Simmons--gave a combined $9.5 million ($4.45 million, $3 million and $2 million, respectively). Calculating the influence of these and the slightly less wealthy Swift Boat donors during this cycle is a touch more complicated than simply adding up their contributions. Each one exerts far more influence as a bundler, given the federal restrictions on individual giving, which limit donors to a maximum of $4,600 per cycle. So The Nation looked not only at the contributions of the donors themselves but also at those of their family members and employees. It's an imperfect method, since some employees are clearly contributing of their own volition (such as one employee of a Simmons company who gave money to Hillary Clinton), but it gives a rough estimate of who's backing whom and to what extent.

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080107/hayes
Written by: Christopher Hayes

[sniffa]

1. they donated to Hillary?

:wow:

[OKNancy]

3. can you read?

It said one of the Simmons employees gave to Hillary. Just like I can't control who my employees give to ( in fact, one of my best is a Republican, so she probably does)

[sniffa]

6. no i can't

i have no idea how i'm responding to you now. it's a miracle!!!1! :woohoo:

[jakem]

9. that is hilarious!

nicely done sir. (maam? i dont know you after all...)

[sniffa]

15. gracias

and i have a penis. :hi:

[K Gardner]

10. You crack me the freak up :-)

[sniffa]

14. thank you, thank you

*bows*

[OKNancy]

11. I liked you better when you hung in the lounge

I never went there

[sniffa]

13. sorry to disappoint

well, not really. :hi:

[avrdream]

2. Oh God, let us not cave to these guys again!

May our candidate speak up rapidly and loudly against their tricks.

My prayer.

[lisainmilo]

4. Amen to that!

K&R

[Patchuli]

5. I like how quiet they are

while they wait to see which Democrat's life to invade and reputation to sully. Those shitbirds need to be legally stopped.

[minnesota_liberal]

7. Back? Hell, they never left!

in 2006, elements of the Swift Bost Liars were active in "A Stronger America-Minnesota" - a stealth attack PAC that bought ran tons on negatve ads in Minnesota against the Dem candidate for Governor.

[santamargarita]

16. True...

I really don't think their bullshit will be effective this time. But with the help of the fascist media, who knows.
In any case, we need to run these bastards out of our country - quick!

[mopinko]

17. hey, they went after my ALDERMAN.

david herro, who runs a hedge fund, provided a almost half the war chest for a stealth republican in the non-partisan chicago municipal election. it is presumed that this was at the behest of walmart, of which his fund is a major stockholder. my alderman wanted to make the "big box" retailers pay a living wage. penn and teller also jumped on the slime wagon. i always wondered if it wasn't the city council impeachment resolution, myself.

[guruoo]

18. Penn and Teller???

What???

[mopinko]

21. that's what i said. they did a 'bullshit' about wal mart haters

featuring my alderman, in the middle of the campaign. he tries to explain the simple concept that these mcjobs actually drain a neighborhood, etc. they just kept saying- jobs, who doesn't want jobs. and in the end, had a couple of women take their shirts off. case closed.
had a really bad infestation of local freeper blogs, too.
things that make you go hmmm.

[guruoo]

22. Sure it wasn't satire?

I'd really like to see that one!

[mopinko]

23. oh no

unless the whole frikkin series is satire. it is on google video in 3 pieces that i can see. Wal-Mart Hatred.

[guruoo]

24. Naa, after seeing this....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vz3_YSiAu8s
I'd say it's for real.
Looks like P&T have whored out to the wingnuts.

[mopinko]

25. emma mitts- thinks

that they call them big box stores because they sell stuff in big boxes. :eyes: yeah, those guys sure make a compelling case, don't they. and air it in the middle of the election cycle.
yup, the whole cycle was bizarre. and to this day, i swear i smelled kkkarl walking around. joe moore worked hard to prevent this stupid war, including introducing a resolution to impeach bush before it started. sadly, i do think those clowns are petty enough to launch a smear job.

[stillcool]

8. more...............

McCain's Swift Boat bounty is exceeded only by that of Mitt Romney, who has raked in $70,550. Romney's success with Swift Boat donors is significant because he has surpassed even McCain in his demonstrated willingness to do or say anything in pursuit of the presidency and because he has emerged as the GOP establishment's favored candidate. Last year, when McCain held that position, the Arizona senator received significant backing from Swift Boat donors. But many have subsequently switched their allegiance. Pickens, who donated to McCain in June 2006, is now an enthusiastic Giuliani donor and fundraiser (Giuliani ranks third in Swift Boat funding, with $47,950). Perry, who also recorded several donations to McCain's PAC in 2005 and 2006, is now a major donor and fundraiser for Romney. If the list of top Swift Boat donors is expanded to fifty, Romney's fundraising edge is even more pronounced. (Neither Romney nor Giuliani's campaign returned calls for comment.)
----------------------------------------------------------
This all supports the notion that the people behind the Swift Boat operation are chiefly concerned with the continued upward redistribution of wealth that is, more or less, the contemporary GOP's raison d'être. In 2006 Perry ponied up $5 million to start the Economic Freedom Fund, a 527 group devoted to attacking Democratic incumbents, and landed a large donation from prominent Swift Boat donor Carl Lindner. All of which is to say that the Swift Boaters aren't some kind of side show, a coterie of vicious mudslingers operating at the edges of respectability. They are the show. They are modern conservatism's core funders and beneficiaries. With conservatives staring straight into the abyss, their activities in this election cycle could very well make the Swift Boat smears look tame by comparison.

[NastyRiffraff]

12. Of course they're back!

Look at the success they had with Kerry.

URGENT MEMO to the Democratic nominee. Respond, immediately and strongly. You KNOW they're going to attack, whoever the nominee is.

[guruoo]

19. They need to be preempted, before they

have the chance to mount an organized repeat of '04.

[guruoo]

20. I believe they're throwing away their money this time n/t