By Pam Martens: October 19, 2012  A Sacramento law firm that touts its sophistication in campaign finance matters has been linked to companies secretly operated by Nathan Sproul to register voters.  Sproul’s operation is under investigation in Florida and by members of Congress for voter registration fraud, including registering dead people, forging signatures, falsifying addresses, and changing party affiliations.  Yesterday, a former employee was arrested in Virginia for tossing completed voter registrations into a dumpster, as reported by Joseph Tanfani at the Los Angeles Times.  Charles H. Bell, Jr. and Thomas W. Hiltachk, founded the law firm now known as Bell, McAndrews & Hiltachk in 1991.  It bills itself as a leader in campaign finance and regularly brings election law matters before the Federal Election Commission and Appellate Courts.  Bell is currently General Counsel to the California Republican Party, serving in that position since 1999.  He also held that position from … Continue reading →

By Pam Martens: October 18, 2012 The landmark 2010 Citizens United decision at the U.S. Supreme Court, effectively ending democracy as we know it, made it legal for advocacy groups to accept unlimited funds from secret donors while openly campaigning for a candidate.  Super PACs can now also accept unlimited sums from a single donor and spend every dime on attack ads against an opponent, providing they keep their activities separate from the candidate’s campaign. What has evolved from the Citizens United decision is an incestuous world where campaign rules matter little to the masters of the universe. The pro-Romney super Pac, Restore Our Future, has raked in $96,667,002 in this campaign cycle according to a recent filing at the Federal Election Commission. Almost half of that has sluiced out the back door to the ad buying firm of Mentzer Media.  Mentzer Media is the firm that placed over $18 million in ads attacking … Continue reading →

By Pam Martens: October 17, 2012  Despite how one feels about President Obama’s policies, he is still the President and Commander in Chief of our Nation.  In public, televised settings that will be transmitted around the globe, he should be addressed with respect.  In last night’s debate, Governor Romney gave the appearance that he has, in his mind, already become the President.  He spoke rudely to President Obama, reprimanding him as one might speak to a child: “You’ll get your chance in a moment. I’m still speaking.”  As we’ve worried aloud before, Mitt Romney seems to have a mean streak.  In an increasingly volatile world, diplomacy and measured words from our President are more important than ever before.  Which leads us to another concern: Mitt Romney’s hostile absorption with the Chinese.  In both his first and second debate,  Romney seemed hell bent on demonizing China from a public stage — versus quiet, private … Continue reading →

By Pam Martens: October 16, 2012  (1) Mr. President, both Ron Ruskind and Sheila Bair have written books that suggest that your Treasury Secretary, Tim Geithner, is a tool of Wall Street and, specifically, Citigroup. Mr. Suskind indicated that you had instructed Mr. Geithner to unwind Citigroup and he ignored your order.  Will you tell Americans once and for all if that is true, and if it is, why the President of the United States would tolerate insubordination from his Treasury Secretary.  (2) Governor Romney, you and your running mate, Paul Ryan, believe we have too much government: too many governmental controls in business, too many government entitlement programs.  But when it comes to women’s bodies and abortion, you advocate letting the government control. Can you explain the seeming dichotomy of your logic and, also, why it would be humane to bring unwanted children into a country where one in every five … Continue reading →

By Pam Martens: October 15, 2012 A little over a month ago, I went to the web site of the Koch Industries roster of their version of “facts,” and stumbled upon, completely by accident, the billionaire brothers’ wholesale attack on Robert Greenwald, the filmmaker who released the documentary Koch Brothers Exposed earlier this year.  For the balance of the day, wherever I went on the internet, various versions of Koch ads popped up, berating Greenwald and his film.  I felt like I was being stalked. According to a techie friend, I had picked up a cookie at the Koch Industries web site and it was using that cookie to follow me around and attempt to brainwash me against Robert Greenwald and his film.  I had to erase all my cookies to stop this stalking. If you think this is over-the-top creepy, you obviously have not yet read the article in the New … Continue reading →

By Pam Martens: October 12, 2012 Watching the Presidential and Vice Presidential debates, it’s easy to get caught up in personality over substance, rhetoric over reality.  The reality check is to remind ourselves what industry is giving massive, lopsided support to the Romney/Ryan ticket: Wall Street.  According to the Center for Responsive Politics, the top five funders of Romney’s campaign are all Wall Street firms.  The PACs, employees and their immediate family members have given the following to the Romney campaign: Goldman Sachs – $891,140; Bank of America (which owns Merrill Lynch) — $668,139; JPMorgan Chase — $663,219; Morgan Stanley — $649,847; Credit Suisse Group — $554,066.  No Wall Street firm is among the top five donors to the Obama campaign. This level of support suggests two things: Wall Street has been assured by the Romney/Ryan campaign that they will repeal the Dodd-Frank financial reform legislation and they will privatize Social Security.  … Continue reading →

By Pam Martens: October 11, 2012 If you thought the Republican Party had shut down the operations of Nathan Sproul, the man under investigation for running companies engaging in voter registration fraud in 11 counties in Florida and other states, you would be wrong.  A new batch of entities using Sproul’s office address and phone number have sprung up in at least five  states and they are heavily advertising on the internet for “political canvassers.” I called the number in one of the help wanted ads.  When a man returned my call, I did not mislead or say that I was seeking a job.  I simply asked for the name of the company offering the job.  His answer was: “We’re a non-partisan organization.”  I said but I’d like to know the actual name of the company. I got another marketing pitch.  When I asked the question for the third time, … Continue reading →

By Pam Martens: October 10, 2012  Yesterday, eleven intrepid countries in Europe, led by the rallying cry of Germany and France, agreed to forge ahead on the imposition of a transaction tax on the trading of stocks, bonds and derivatives.   The specifics have not yet been ironed out but the original proposal called for taxing trading of stocks and bonds at 0.1 percent per transaction and derivative trading at 0.01 percent.  The transaction tax is referred to in Europe as the Tobin Tax, named after the American economist James Tobin who first proposed it over 40 years ago.  That forty year number is the operative term in this battle.  Another phrase comes to mind as well: when hell freezes over.  The prospect that either Wall Street or The City (London’s equivalent to Wall Street) would tolerate this tax without a mass exodus of business from the countries imposing it is … Continue reading →

By Pam Martens: October 9, 2012  Obviously, back in 2008, when Wall Street was dumping millions into the campaign of Barack Obama, it didn’t ask for a prenup.  The honeymoon went smoothly for a while, with Wall Street quite content to have slap-on-the-wrist Mary Schapiro sitting atop the SEC and Tim Geithner, the former sugar-daddy of bailouts from the New York Fed, holding down the fort at the U.S. Treasury.   But then came Dodd-Frank, the Volcker Rule, regulation of derivatives, quips about fat-cats from the President and a big-money divorce.  Today, reports the Wall Street Journal, Wall Street and financial services firms have given a tepid $12 million to President Obama’s campaign versus the $43 million they gave in 2008.  Presidential candidate Mitt Romney has received over $24 million from the slimmed down fat-cats in this election cycle.  During the first presidential debate, Romney had this to say about the … Continue reading →

By Pam Martens: October 8, 2012 Since August of last year, Nathan Sproul, the man at the center of the growing voter registration fraud investigations in 11 counties in Florida, as well as other states, has registered at least 10 limited liability companies at the address of 80 E. Rio Salado Parkway, Suite 817, Tempe, Arizona.  But in this photo taken on August 21 of this year, all that we see at this address are about a dozen volunteers making signs for Presidential candidate Mitt Romney in a big open space devoid of desks or anything else looking like a business. Various media have reported that the Romney campaign has said its relationship with Sproul ended in March of this year, but this photo was taken six weeks ago, according to the caption. Why are volunteers for Romney working out of Nathan Sproul’s office rather than out of the official … Continue reading →