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Has The NY Times Struck Again?

via lgf

According to a classified briefing at the Pentagon this week by the commander, Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the number of American combat brigades in Iraq is projected to decrease to 5 or 6 from the current level of 14 by December 2007.

Update: Pundita points out that the SWIFT story has to do with things other than just the GWOT.

MyDD Not Disbursing Funds To Candidates

Lost in the current controversy over MyDD founder Jerome Armstrong's apparent belief in astrology, are other reports which could cause some to question if it's a good idea to have an individual who ran afoul of the SEC minding on line contributions for political candidates.

As The Hill reported on June 15th, Daily Kos has transferred administration of Blog PAC over to MyDD. MyDD also indicated its decision to no longer distribute funds from the PAC to political candidates, but to use them, in some manner, to support bloggers themselves.

BlogPAC, a liberal political action committee started in 2004 by the Daily Kos’s Markos Moulitsas Zúniga and several others bloggers, is under new management.

Chris Bowers and Matt Stoller, who write for the liberal blog MyDD.com, took control of BlogPAC earlier this month. It will no longer operate as a traditional PAC, raising money to support candidates and participate in elections, Bowers said in a statement on the website.

“Under our management, the mission of BlogPac will be primarily to defend the netroots and improve the quality of online activism,” Bowers wrote. “What we do not have is a formal entity to defend and enhance the political activity of the progressive blogosphere and progressive netroots.”

Bowers told The Hill that BlogPAC does not need to steer money to candidates because ActBlue, a website that lets bloggers and readers contribute directly to candidates, has helped raise more than $5 million for Democrats since 2004.

Given some previous statements and the current controversy surrounding Amrstrong, it's fair to look at certain facts. While Stoller and Bowers are officially administering the PAC, one has to wonder if they don't actually work for Armstrong. As pointed out here, someone is being paid by someone at MyDD.

Here Chris Bowers at MyDD acknowledges some paid arrangement involving the SEIU.

In the interest of full disclosure, I should note that while I am not actually paid by SEIU, the only client I am currently paid to consult for is SEIU.

And here, I pointed out that the SEIU has been paying Political Technologies, LLC, presumably an Amrstrong company. Such an arrangement, between Armstrong and Bowers, assuming it exists, in a sense, might make the increasingly controversial Armstrong Bower's boss while he's administering Blog PAC.

Oh - and here's a link to where SEIU paid Political Technologists LLC almost $162,000 in 2005. Enter - political technologies LLC And either there's a redundancy, or they were paying two equal payouts each month.

There is also ample evidence on the Internet that, whether illegal, or not, Armstrong's judgment, both political and financial, is certainly subject to question. In this post, poster MyDDdotcom indicates he also posted on stocks as 426figures.

Yep, used to post on RB as 426figures, good to be here, thanks... SYCD looks like a good buy at .11, if CMIX or TGHI works out to form I'll load up again there... that Pokemon run thing sure was a fun one:)

Following the trail of 426figures leads one to this post, which claims to display a variety of screen names for MyDD's Jerome Armstrong.

could get Jerome B. Armstrong (426figures, four2sixfigures, 426, im426, jeromejackson, mydddotcom etc...to start a message board. He does specialize in Shells and RM's over on Ihub,SI or RB. We all know how involved he was on the early boards For SCII, I think he even started the RB thread. Not sure what his new alias is now he does change them alot

Evidence of Armstrong's bad judgment might be seen here on this board, upon which a poster, 426figures, consistently touts another stock, that of InvestAmerica, Inc (INVT).

As for my realistic opinion. I like to think big and trade wise. I'm already up 300%, so I've sold a third of my position and have 20k of free shares that I'll ride this with, as far as it will take me. There's no way this will ever be in the .teens or .twenties again, ... Grond(sic) floor, the company is excited, worlds of possibilities in this emerging, very profitible field.
Skies the limit! Just a matter of finding new, higher, floors now!

The issue of judgment comes into play if you glance at this from Fool.com, where that precise stock is featured in an article Following the Stupid Money.

Well, it goes to figure that if there is some smart money out there in the investing universe, there must also be some stupid money.

An example: InvestAmerica (OTCBB: INVT). Here is the company's profile:

... Let me translate: We're not doing anything. We're looking for something to do, and we're interested in merging with a company that would like to become public the easy way.

Current market cap? $148 million dollars. For no revenues, and $500,000 in the bank. Look, I don't want to cast aspersions on the company, but starting up a business is hard, even without the added hassle of dealing with public shareholders. More than 80% of all new companies fail within the first two years. The people who have invested in this company have given themselves, mathematically, a 20% chance of even getting their money back. On what? A company with no business plan whatsoever. We often talk about the illogic of playing the lottery as an investment (average return -50%), but these people would be better off if they DID put their money into lottery tickets.

Without alleging any illegality, or malfeasance, which I am not - given Armstrong's display of bad judgment in both political candidates and stocks, on top of his trouble with the SEC, it seems fair to at least broach the question: will the decision to turn Blog PAC over to MyDD end up helping blogs, or being a classic example of how a fool and his money can be soon parted?

Of course, assuming one thinks most liberals are fools to begin with, I suppose you could make the argument that its stupid money right from the start.

You can see Blog PAC's FEC filings here. They've already had more than one request for additional information as regards itemized expenditures and affiliated organizations or relationships. The pdf's aren't linkable, but are listed as Requests for Additional Information at link above.

Update: Just like me to be off researching a story while everyone's having so much fun!

Also, Instapundit has a round up of all the related coverage. Or should I say snark?

Update: If you look at the BlogPAC disclosure records, you'll see that from Jan - Mar of 2005 - their only disbursements were to another blogger / consultant - Bob Bingham - from the Swing State Blog. According to slate, he was a one time employee of Armstrong, as well as a leading force behind BlogPAC. Interesting. They've been collecting money on line and paying it to ... themselves for consulting?? I don't know. But those filings could prove interesting, either now, or in the future.

MyDD's Unethical Blog Management

Update: If your not up on the Jerome Armstrong controversy click here for the details.

Unbelievable - Wizbang has busted MyDD sanitizing their blog in the wake of the astrology discovery.

That tells you about all you need to know about MyDD and crew. Anyone who gives that blogpac, or whatever it is, a dime must be crazy.

See Wizbang for more.

Update: Geesh, the Left side of the blog world is melting down. They are blaming the recent terror bust on Bush and politics. These people are insane.

Silly Mood

Shoulda never started photoshoppin'! ; )

Update: Um, on the otherhand, this below isn't meant to be funny. That is, unless you think you might enjoy reading Kos getting pimp-slapped by the owner / Editor-in-Chief of The New Republic.

OUCH!

Sorry for the caps!

Friday Night Special

You'd think some people would stop given it's Friday. But not the ACLU. Now they're calling the latest terrorist surveillance program an abuse of power.

When you're done with the news, hop on over to Michelle's and check in on the photoshop contest featuring old World War II posters. The thumbnails are my entries.

Muslim Film Festival

One of the diverse images of Islam on display, the “highlight” of the festival in fact, will be the deranged anti-American, antisemitic Turkish film Valley of the Wolves, featuring Billy Zane as a CIA officer who routinely tortures and massacres Muslims, and Gary Busey as a Jewish doctor who cuts hearts out of Muslims for the black market organ trade.

Organizers say the festival’s highlight will be “Valley of the Wolves,” a Turkish film that fictionalizes a true event during the Iraq war on July 4, 2003, when U.S. forces detained 11 Turkish soldiers.

No, not in Palestine - but California, of course.

Friday Fun

Say no to second had smoke via Wuzzadem - Here ya go!

One For Moe At RedState

Moe Lane at RedState seems to be having some fun with my astrology post.

Update [2006-6-23 13:20:26 by Thomas]: Y'know, the great thing about this is, it's the gift that freaking keeps giving. Thus, is Mark Warner really employing someone who -- it appears -- made stock predictions (and perhaps political predictions?) based on whether Jupiter is in the Seventh House?

Well, sad as it may be, yes - and these below just scream to be linked. Get them while they last - and you will want to read them all, if you are intrigued by the bizarre. Links are very long reads.

Implications of Varuna
JB Armstrong

Varuna was found on November 28, 2000. I've written up the web resources in the first paragraph of Varuna: Bush & the Republicans. We're a long way from understanding the manifestations of Varuna with it's angles and conjunctions. Nevertheless, the first thing that Varuna does (which probably gives us a clue as to its manifestation) is confront a sacred cow of the astrological community; the second thing it does is shed some light on the rise of political fundamentalism; and the third thing we need to learn, is that understanding the trans-Neptunian objects properly mirrors the major catalyst for transformation of this time period-- setting aside nationalistic and religious differences, in favor of a global understanding.

From the Varuna: Bush & the Republicans post:

Bush, Republicans, and Varuna

18-21 Sag: Emerging Democrats Confront Bush should be read as a precursor to what follows. The GOP has their natal Varnua at this 19' Sag point, conjunct Bush's South node, which Pluto is transiting. Varuna right now in transit, is at 13 Cancer, conjunct the GOP's natal Sun, which is also Bush's Sun.

For Bush, Varuna brings out his martial qualities in a unique manner. Similar to Lincoln, whose life only took hold when Neptune became discovered. Bush came to power in 2000, when Varuna was discovered. In Bush's natal chart, he has Varuna conjunct his mid-heaven at 27 Aries. This is exactly square his natal Saturn, at 27 Cancer, and lays the basis for being triggered from Saturn, Pluto, and Varuna transits. Bush's Pluto is conjunct Mercury on the Ascendant. When Bush speaks from the perspective of revenge, he is most clear; and hence, what he sees as his own special calling, became crystallized for him on 9/11.

On September 11th, 2001, Jupiter was exactly conjunct Varuna, atop Bush's and the USA's Sun. Pluto, at 13' Sagittarius was conjunct the USA ascendant, inconjunct from Varuna/Jupiter at the MH. It was as if Manifest Destiny became triggered for Bush to see-- a Global War on Terrorism became his and the followers religious zeal. Since then, Bush and the Republicans have used 9/11 toward their own gain & glory. The warmongers got their calling using the patriotism via the USA Sun; it's been very powerful to confront head on, especially given the media's driving coverage.

Good luck! E mail when you discover the secret of how Warner wins.

Fighting Back

With the Internet, email and additional sophisticated modes of communication, it's much easier than it ever was to talk back to big media today. The NY Times and the LA Times, both obviously opponents to the Iraq War and the greater war on terror, have once again decided to put our National Security at risk for headlines in their ever-decreasingly circulated rags.

We don't have to quietly take this. Most likely, we can't expect the Administration to do much about it. It would risk a political calamity, were they to act. But perhaps with enough strong public support - one can hope. It's time to start pushing back on elements of the MSM so obviously and irresponsibly out of control.

Michelle Malkin has more, with video from the White House at Hot Air

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