Ok, DU... Who ARE these guys?

[hootinholler]

They call themselves Americans Elect:

Americans Elect is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that is funded by individual contributions. We were founded by citizens from across the political spectrum who are worried that political divisions are keeping our nation's big problems from being solved. We intend to pay back the bulk of our initial financing as we recruit delegates, so that no single individual will have contributed more than $10K. And so that our candidates will answer only to the American people.

As interesting notion, that I will admit, but who are the people organizing this? They claim to have over a million already signed up and we all know that times are ripe for a populist candidate. My Spidey senses are all a tingly.

I would hate to see someone like Dick Armey doing something like this. After what was done with an apparent populist movement called the tea party which has seemingly grabbed the reigns of the republican party.

So who are they? Is this legit or a ploy to divide the vote? It seems to me like it would be important to know.

:shrug:

Partial whois:

Domain ID:D159391346-LROR
Domain Name:AMERICANSELECT.ORG
Created On:10-Jun-2010 16:28:53 UTC
Last Updated On:09-Aug-2011 22:36:07 UTC
Expiration Date:10-Jun-2013 16:28:53 UTC
Sponsoring Registrar:GoDaddy.com, Inc. (R91-LROR)
Status:CLIENT DELETE PROHIBITED
Status:CLIENT RENEW PROHIBITED
Status:CLIENT TRANSFER PROHIBITED
Status:CLIENT UPDATE PROHIBITED
Registrant ID:CR75650069
Registrant Name:Joshua Levine
Registrant Organization:Americans Elect
Registrant Street1:P.O. Box 27875
Registrant Street2:
Registrant Street3:
Registrant City:Washington
Registrant State/Province:District of Columbia
Registrant Postal Code:20038-7875
Registrant Country:US

LinkedIN has 6 Josh Levine entries within 50 miles of DC.

-Hoot

[blogslut]

1. They're a reboot of UNITY '08

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Unity08

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Americans_Elect_2012

[hootinholler]

13. They seem to have a slant towards the PTB

Someone is working on them.

The following is an annotated list of the Board of Advisors for Americans Elect, the 501c4 corporation with plans to nominate its own candidate for President of the United States in 2012. Starting from a previously unpublished Americans Elect document obtained by the Los Angeles Times on July 26 2011, the list below is a work in progress, containing not just the names of the Board of Advisors contained in the Americans Elect but also hyperlinks to information about the Board of Advisors’ relevant affiliations. Additional known roles in Americans Elect and its predecessor Unity08, if any, are indicated in parentheses.

Annotations are incomplete and being added on a daily basis; a lack of information about a person’s affiliations should not be interpreted as a lack of affiliations themselves. If you have any sourced information regarding the affiliations of the Americans Elect Board of Advisors, please pass them on...

-Hoot

[blogslut]

20. All I remember from '08

...is that they were met with many bwahahahas and fizzled out fairly quickly.

I think they're full of poo and I shall choose to point and laugh at them at any opportunity.

[MineralMan]

2. I don't know who they are, but what they are is

doomed to failure. Anyone can fire up a website, but it's extraordinarily difficult to fire up enough support to survive.

[TBF]

3. This Josh Levine is a possibility -

http://pview.findlaw.com/view/4351700_1

Lawyer Overview

Mr. Levine practices in the Firm’s Pharmaceutical Products and Toxic Torts & Products Liability groups. He is a graduate of the Firm’s 2007 Summer Associate program.

Areas of Practice

Pharmaceutical Products
Toxic Torts & Products Liability

Wouldn't be surprised to see pharma $$$ behind this.

[immoderate]

4. That's what enterprise looks like in the age of information.

It's like a mailing list that you pay to get onto. So then they can continuously hit you for more donations. If Josh is on the ball, he will have one going for conservatives, and one for independents, too.

--imm

[Rabblevox]

5. PLOY!!! Please read this...

-snip-

In the second and third quarters of 2010, Americans Elect’s more than $1.5 million in funding came from one person – Peter Ackerman, managing director of Rockport Capital, a former principal at Drexel Burnham during Michael Milken’s tenure there.

-snip-

more:
http://capitolweekly.net/article.php?xid=znc6uo0z1a56ld

This is big-time bullshit, spread the word.

[hootinholler]

9. Thanks for that article

The association with the CFR is troubling.

We need more recs for this.

-Hoot

[Emit]

6. Americans Elect seeks to upend primary system

It hopes to select an alternate presidential ticket through an online, open convention. Its status as a social welfare group has enabled it to keep private its financiers even as it tries to qualify as a new party.
Above, a screenshot from the Americans Elect website. The group says its… (Americans Elect)July 28, 2011|By Matea Gold, Washington Bureau
County registrar offices across California on Thursday will begin receiving the product of an audacious enterprise — nearly 1.6 million signatures collected by Americans Elect, a group attempting to ride exasperation with the nation's political leaders into a place on the ballot in all 50 states by 2012.

Its mission is to upend the traditional party primary process by selecting an alternate presidential ticket through an online, open nominating convention.

~snip~

Still, many of the group's experienced political operatives hail from centrist circles: Chief Executive Kahlil Byrd is a GOP strategist who worked for Massachusetts' Democratic governor, Deval Patrick. Pollster Doug Schoen worked for Hillary Rodham Clinton's Democratic presidential campaign, as well as for New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, an independent.

One of the main financial backers is Elliot's father, Peter Ackerman, a private investment executive who made tens of millions of dollars working with junk bond trader Michael Milken in the 1980s. He alone has given at least $1.55 million to Americans Elect, according to tax documents the group filed last year while it was briefly organized as a political organization...

~snip~

http://articles.latimes.com/2011/jul/28/nation/la-na-americans-elect-20110728

[hootinholler]

8. Thanks for that article too!

The group has an eclectic board of advisors that includes former FBI and CIA chief William H. Webster and Republican strategist Mark McKinnon, a cofounder of No Labels, a group that seeks to advance partisanship-free politics. (Bloomberg has backed the efforts of No Labels, but a spokeswoman for Americans Elect said he is not involved in its project.)

At least 11 of the 50 board members work in finance, including Kirk Rostron, who places investments for hedge fund managers and is one of a handful of publicly identified contributors to the group.

Elliot Ackerman said Americans Elect does not take any money from special interests or political action committees, adding that it is up to donors to determine whether they want to be identified. "I think that's an unfortunate testament to the status of our political landscape that people feel uncomfortable about disclosing the fact that they're supporting an open nominating process," he said.
...

They must be trying to hide from the public who their donors are. This is a very strange way for a group to act that is complaining about the state of American politics,” said Fred Wertheimer.

And a blogger who has been watching them also. Very interesting reading there.

-Hoot

[Emit]

14. De nada, hootinholler

And thanks for posting about this. I was unfamiliar - important to know this stuff.

[starroute]

23. William Webster is deeply rooted in the Reagan/Bush era

He served as FBI director under Reagan and CIA director after Bill Casey died and then for most of Bush's term, and all his connections since continue to point in that direction.

He and Arnaud de Borchgrave -- former editor-in-chief of the Moonie-owned Washington Times -- were the chairman and director of something called the Global Organized Crime Project, set up by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and also of CSIS's Transnational Threats Project.

They were also both on the senior advisory board of Diligence LLC, a private security firm founded by CIA and MI5 veterans and tied in with some of Haley Barbour's associates, as well as with Neil Bush.

And Webster was on the advisory board of GlobalOptions, a firm founded by "counter-terrorism expert" Neil Livingstone -- who was active in many of Bill Casey's off-the-books operations in the 1980's -- and Rob Owens, a former aide to Ollie North who was also part of that context.

My feeling is that nothing good can be expected of any enterprise with which he's associated.

[starroute]

24. Schoen is a dubious item

I'm going to repost some stuff I wrote a month ago, when the name of this group first surfaced:

http://www.openleft.com/diary/9625 /

Nov 02, 2008

Doug Schoen is the DLC-affiliated pollster for Republicans like Mike Bloomberg - the guy who bashes progressive organizations from the right, the genius strategist who makes his name on perpetually telling Democrats to capitulate to Republicans on major issues. . . .

He says a Democratic victory on Tuesday will mean no mandate for Democratic policies, even while admitting an Obama election would be "a wholsale rejection" of conservatism. That's like saying the 1980 election was a rejection of liberalism, but not an embrace of conservatism - an assertion that no pollster would ever make without expecting to be laughed at. In our (unfortunately) binary politics, referendum elections like this year's by definition couple rejection of one party and ideology with the embrace of another party and ideology.

Schoen knows all this - and so his column is yet another preemptive effort to claim that a Democratic victory on Tuesday obviously - self-evidently! - means America is more conservative than ever.


http://www.newshounds.us/2009/08/15/fox_news_democratic_wanker_of_the_week_doug_schoen.php

Is Doug Schoen really a Democrat? Even Sean Hannity wondered during the “Sleep-In Sunday Panel” segment on last night's (8/14/09) Hannity show. Schoen, purportedly the lone Democrat among three conservatives, barely had a good word to say for what was supposed to be his own side and repeatedly joined in the partisan attacks coming from the others. . . .

But Schoen wasn’t through attacking Democrats. He went on to agree with Hannity’s distorted account that Democrats have been calling town house protesters "Nazis" and "mobsters." “It is tragic,” Schoen said, instead of correcting the record about what Democrats have actually said and the way they have been demonized on Fox. He continued, “It’s un-American to engage in that kind of division and hate. ‘Cause we all are Americans and we all want to work together to solve problems.”


http://www.newshounds.us/2010/01/02/doug_schoen_the_fox_news_democratic_wanker_of_the_decade.php

I previously wrote about what a Democratic wanker Doug Schoen is. But for his jaw-dropping appearance on Hannity on 12/18/09, in which he enthusiastically joined every single Republican talking point and failed to rebut the smears leveled at what was supposed to be his own side, Schoen has taken the cake for Democratic Wankers. . . .

Schoen started by giving props to Andrew Breitbart for his anti-ACORN videos. ... Schoen exclaimed with gusto that the undercover videos, made by conservative activists with their own issues regarding truth, are “changing the face of politics… because what people are learning is that they can’t get away with the kind of outrageous behavior that has been part of politics as usual.” . . .

Next, after Breitbart went on a tear against the so-called liberal media, Schoen took a gratuitous slap at the Obama administration for criticizing Fox News as an arm of the GOP. “Given the extraordinary audience that you (Hannity) command, that Fox News commands, it’s not acceptable or rational to sort of say ‘This isn’t journalism or news,’ as the White House has said. It’s just bad judgment.”


http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/2010/10/07/doug_schoen_republican

Oct 7, 2010

Famed "Democratic" pollster Doug Schoen can commonly be found on Fox News explaining that Democrats are bad and wrong. Sometimes he writes op-eds with fellow "Democrat" Pat Caddell about how awful and disappointing Barack Obama is because of his constant race-baiting and class warfare. (And sometimes he writes, for Fox, that the Democratic party needs a "bold, centrist agenda that focuses on fiscal discipline ." Also Barack Obama's next chief of staff should have "tires fo the business community.")

Obviously, as a longtime, prominent Democrat, Doug Schoen is doing everything he can to help out in the upcoming midterm elections. For example: He's a special guest at a fundraiser for a congressional candidate from New York this Sunday. The candidate is Republican John Gomez. As Media Matters reports, Gomez may not be a Democrat, but he's a part of Schoen's real family: Fox News.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/12/AR2010111202846.html

Opinion | One and done: To be a great president, Obama should not seek reelection in 2012

By Douglas E. Schoen and Patrick H. Caddell
Sunday, November 14, 2010

If the president goes down the reelection road, we are guaranteed two years of political gridlock at a time when we can ill afford it. But by explicitly saying he will be a one-term president, Obama can deliver on his central campaign promise of 2008, draining the poison from our culture of polarization and ending the resentment and division that have eroded our national identity and common purpose.

We do not come to this conclusion lightly. But it is clear, we believe, that the president has largely lost the consent of the governed. The midterm elections were effectively a referendum on the Obama presidency. And even if it was not an endorsement of a Republican vision for America, the drubbing the Democrats took was certainly a vote of no confidence in Obama and his party. The president has almost no credibility left with Republicans and little with independents. . . .

Obama can restore the promise of the election by forging a government of national unity, welcoming business leaders, Republicans and independents into the fold.

[starroute]

25. And Schoen has also been involved in the regime change biz

There was this item from 2004 about his firm -- which I'm quoting from DU because I'm not sure the original AP story is still available:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=105x1559704

CARACAS, Venezuela - A U.S. firm's exit poll that said President Hugo Chavez would lose a recall referendum has landed in the center of a controversy following his resounding victory.

"Exit Poll Results Show Major Defeat for Chavez," the survey, conducted by Penn, Schoen & Berland Associates, asserted even as Sunday's voting was still on. But in fact, the opposite was true — Chavez ended up trouncing his enemies and capturing 59 percent of the vote.

Any casual observer of the 2000 U.S. presidential elections knows exit polls can at times be unreliable. But the poll has become an issue here because the opposition, which mounted the drive to force the leftist leader from office, insists it shows the results from the vote itself were fraudulent. The opposition also claims electronic voting machines were rigged, but has provided no evidence.

[hootinholler]

27. Ooooo

Nice collection there.

-Hoot

[flamingdem]

30. Do you think there is a Bloomberg connection? nt

[starroute]

28. Then there's someone from Burson-Marsteller

The person's name isn't familiar to me, but the firm is a hotbed of GOP and right-wing operatives.

Charlie Black's firm, BKSH, is a subsidiary. Black was one of Karl Rove's pals back in their College Republican days, has been a major GOP operative, and has also been closely tied in with the Bush end of things since 2000. BKSH worked for the Lincoln Group when it was doing propaganda operations in Iraq and helped Blackwater prepare for a Congressional hearing in 2007.

In 2001, Burson-Marsteller acquired a firm called Direct Impact, which then became closely associated with the propaganda wing of the GOP. A former NRCC communications director became CEO in 2002, and another former NRCC communications director was there briefly in 2003 before becoming a top Bush-Cheney '04 strategist. In 2006, a former Bush administration Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs joined Burson-Marsteller with particular responsibility for oversight of Direct Impact.

So again, these are not disinterested people.

[hootinholler]

32. Is that the same Black that was involved with Abramoff in the Marianas?

Child labor made in the USA clothing, IIRC. Not at all sure if it's the same Black.

-Hoot

[starroute]

33. No, it's this guy

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_R._Black,_Jr.

Charles R. Black, Jr. (born 1947), is a former chief lobbyist for BKSH & Associates, a lobbying firm associated with Burson-Marsteller. . . . In 1972 he contended with Karl Rove for the leadership of the College Republicans, in a contest so heated that then Republican National Committee (RNC) head George H.W. Bush was forced to intervene. . . In 1975, Black co-founded the National Conservative Political Action Committee (NCPAC) with Terry Dolan and Roger Stone. . . .

Black went on to work for a succession of Republican presidential campaigns from 1976 to 1992, including those of Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush. His first hire on the Reagan campaign was Lee Atwater, whom he met during the course of his work with the RNC in 1972. He re-emerged as an advisor to George W. Bush's campaigns in 2000 and 2004 and has been quoted in news stories as an unofficial White House spokesman.

A colleague of Black's, Republican media consultant Roger Ailes, attested to his reputation for toughness: "Charlie's the kind of guy who if he came home and found somebody making out with his wife on a rainy day, he'd break the guy's umbrella and ask him to leave, then have him killed a year later. Lee Atwater would blow the house up." . . .

Black and his firm were also early supporters of Iraqi politician Ahmed Chalabi as early as 1999, and received $200,000 to $300,000 from the U.S. government to provide consulting services to Chalabi's Iraqi National Congress. Black proved highly useful to Chalabi, providing the Iraqi exile with access to high-powered officials in Washington.


http://www.prime-policy.com/talent/black

Charles R. Black is Chairman of Prime Policy Group, and was the founder of the firm’s predecessor, BKSH & Associates Worldwide.


http://www.prime-policy.com/

Prime Policy Group combines the integrity, stellar reputation and pioneering spirit of two of Washington's best government affairs brands — BKSH & Associates Worldwide and Timmons and Company.

------------------

I hadn't known about this merger before, but I find it interesting because Timmons and Company is another firm out of that same nexus where GOP lobbyists, shady campaign financing, and covert operations intersect. It was founded in 1975 by William Timmons, who had served in the Nixon and Ford administrations. In the 1980's, Timmons was known as the pioneer of the soft money loopholes which helped get Reagan elected. In 1983, he cofounded Global USA, which was involved with both Neil Livingstone (who I mentioned in another post in connection with William Webster) and Korean influence-peddler Tongsun Park. (And he was involved with Park again in the early 90s in connection with the Iraq oil-for-food scandal.) In the 1990s, his firm was associated with Burson-Marsteller in setting up a notorious tobacco industry front group.

Timmons is retired now, but his son, William Timmons, Jr. -- who was policy director for the National Policy Forum, a political money-laundering front group set up by Haley Barbour when he headed the RNC in the 1990s -- was still with the firm the last I checked.

------------------

Frankly, I wouldn't be surprised if both Charlie Black and Haley Barbour were involved in this group somehow -- though you'd never see their names out front. Barbour left his stint as chairman of the Republican Governors Association after last fall's election, having successfully pushed candidates like Kasich into office with the help of Murdoch money, and I can't believe he isn't currently involved in presidential politics. But until we see what lobbyists and fundraisers the various GOP candidates have on their payrolls, it's hard to tell where the GOP smart money is being directed.

[starroute]

31. Larry Diamond

More regime change stuff -- though this time with the velvet glove.

http://www.iran-interlink.org/files/News4/Mar06/NewYorker060306.htm

Exiles: How Iran's Expatriates are Gaming the Nuclear Threat
New Yorker, By Connie Bruck
March 6, 2006

Early last year, at Stanford University, the three co-directors of the Hoover Institution's Iran Democracy Project-Abbas Milani, Michael McFaul, and Larry Diamond-were collaborating on an article that they hoped would influence U.S. policy toward Iran. Their perspectives were different from those of other polemicists. Only one, Milani, was an Iran expert; McFaul and Diamond were experts in the field of democratic development. McFaul had specialized in the former Soviet Union, and Diamond had recently served as an adviser to the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq. . . .

The Hoover article, "Beyond Incrementalism: A New Strategy for Dealing with Iran," argues that American policy toward Iran has been "stuck" since 1979, and that the urgency of the nuclear crisis calls for strong diplomatic initiatives. The article attracted attention, possibly because, in addition to its boldness, it had something for everyone. It advocated regime change by means of engagement. The more contact that existed between the two countries, the authors argued, the more the mullahs would be weakened. It urged the U.S. to negotiate directly with Iran on its nuclear program. If negotiations were successful, the U.S. should state that it had no intention of invading Iran or choosing its ruler, while continuing to emphasize its support for democracy, human rights, and the rule of law. Existing U.S. sanctions-a broad embargo that hurts the general population- should be lifted, and replaced by "smart sanctions," to target corrupt leaders. And diplomatic relations should be established-"not as a concession to the mullahs but as a step toward opening, liberalizing, and ultimately democratizing Iran."

[elleng]

7. Dunno

Hey, Hoot!

:hi:

[hootinholler]

12. Hi Ellen

:hi:

From some of the articles, they seem like some not so nice people.

-Hoot

[Brickbat]

10. A private business running candidate nominations? What could POSSIBLY go wrong?

Saw a lavish column on it by Thomas Friedman a few weeks ago, so I knew then it had to be crap.

[bemildred]

11. Opportunism and astroturf.

Politics can be a very good job.

[justabob]

15. I was wondering about this too

A friend sent me a link yesterday and while I thought it was interesting, it bothered me that I couldn't find any info about who is behind it. Thanks for this thread.

[Recursion]

16. They use Arno to collect signatures

That's not necessarily bad (anybody who needs petitions has to deal with somebody like them) but Arno has a history of working for the NRA and big tobacco.

[MADem]

17. I saw their front guy on DAILY SHOW and came away with no clear understanding

of who backed them. The guy claimed to be "nonpartisan" but I thought he had an agenda. Just couldn't suss out what it was...

[hootinholler]

18. Check this out then...

A new crop of the rich and not-so-famous (yet).

This needs some serious publicity!

-Hoot

[blm]

21. BushInc loyalists. No surprise the support of Huntsman emerging from the group - a longtime Bushman

who became an expert on China, the Bush family's pivotal ground for the global fascist agenda.

[hootinholler]

22. I think we are walking on

The latest composition of astroturf here.

I wonder if a determined group could turn this around on them?

-Hoot

[starroute]

29. I absolutely agree these are the BushInc loyalists

I've been wondering what the Bush faction was doing amid the current Tea Party insanity afflicting the GOP -- and I think we're finding out.

I've posted a couple of things upthread that were starting to point in that direction -- and I think you've just confirmed it.

William Webster was FBI director under Reagan and then CIA director in 1987-91, during the final Reagan years and early Bush Sr. years.

Doug Schoen has done his best to come across as a centrist, but he's always attacking Democrats -- and his polling firm was involved in dirty regime change games.

Burson-Marsteller is a hotbed of Bush loyalists and GOP propagandists.

So I think what we're seeing here is not just BushInc loyalists, but a group with a distinct background in covert operations, regime change, and propaganda.

Not an encouraging resume.


On edit: Add in Larry Diamond, who a few years back was pushing a "soft" version of regime change policies for Iran.

So far every name I've found in my files points in the direction of propaganda and regime change. Whatever it is, this is not a legitimate political movement.

[saras]

19. The fact that they're hawking the 'centrist' myth tells me all I need to know about them

the links pretty much back up my suspicions

[lonestarlib]

26. Saw them on MSNBC when Smerconish was subbing.

They don't push either party's agenda; the voter decides what issues are important. Because it's on-line, they don't need to raise a lot of money for primaries or conventions. They are hoping it can become a viable third party.