by Gouda » Thu Oct 19, 2006 9:04 am
The blogger concludes that rightwingers are funding the Greens to siphon votes away from Democratic challengers, which may be (partially at least) the case. Are the Greens really sell-outs for accepting such funding? Does funding in this case equal platform or policy influence, or more sinister misdirectioning/tainting? Are the Greens just victims of this awful electoral system? Should they stay pure and reject the funding and associations? <br><!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong><br>Iraq mercenaries supporting political mercenaries: More on the appalling sell-out of the Pennsylvania Green Party</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--><br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.attytood.com/2006/10/iraq_mercenaries_supporting_po.html">www.attytood.com/2006/10/...ng_po.html</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br><!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>You may have heard of Blackwater USA. They're the shadowy, Virginia-based soldier-for-hire company with roots in the U.S. military intelligence community. It has reaped untold millions in Pentagon and Homeland Security contracts since the advent of the Bush administration, from the fires of Fallujah to the floodwaters of New Orleans.<br><br>Simply put, Blackwater USA is not the kind of company you'd expect to get behind the Green Party, with its far-left platform that ostensibly seeks to pull the United States out of Iraq and end the type of military actions that have proved to be such a good source of new business for the mercenary industry.<br><br>Yet, new Federal Election Commission filings reviewed by Attytood (thanks to blogger Bernie O'Hare for the initial tip) showed that that <!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>founder and owner of Blackwater USA, Erik Prince, and his wife donated $10,000 -- the legal maximum -- on July 21 to the once obscure Green Party of Luzerne County</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END-->, the group that apparently spent well over $100,000 in a now all-but-failed bid to get its U.S. Senate candidate, Carl Romanelli, onto the November ballot.<br><br>Last summer, Attytood and other sites like TPMMuckraker told you how all of the initial $66,000 raised by the Scranton-area branch of the "ultra-liberal" party in fact came from GOP and far-right sources, including California's leading pro-life activist -- the Green Party is supposed to be rabidly pro-choice -- and a lobbyist for a division of Halliburton and Chevron. Many of those conservatives had also given money to Sen. Rick Santorum, who would actuallly benefit from the Green Party candidate because it would siphon liberal Democrats put off by the socially conservative views of their party's nominee Bob Casey.<br><br>The new records show that the $66,000 was the smaller portion of the iceberg. In the three-month quarterly period that ended on Oct. 15 (Sunday), the Green Party took in another $90,899 in new money, most of which went to the party's efforts to get on the ballot. Again, it appears that most of the money came from GOP or conservative donors with some ties to Santorum.<br><br>Bob Guzzardi, the one-time 12th Street Gym owner here in Philly whose fervid backing of Santorum touched off a firestorm of criticism among his heavily gay clientele, gave $5,000 to the Luzerne Greens on July 1. <!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>Daniel Ledeen, the son of well-known neoconservative writer Michael Ledeen, also gave the maximum $5,000 on Aug. 15 </strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END-->(Daniel Ledeen was once an intern at the conservative New York Sun, where he asked Michael Moore at a news conference if "Fahenheit 9/11" has been financed by Hezbollah.) Manny Stamatakis, the Philadelphia-area power broker who is top local fundraiser for George W. Bush, gave the Greens $2,500 on July 18.<br><br>What did the conservatives buy with their money? A lot of it -- tens of thousands of dollars -- went to JSM, the Republican-oriented ballot access firm with a highly controversial history, and another large chunk went for lawyers. According to the records, the funds also supported four Green Party candidates running for U.S. Congress -- the 2nd District's Dave Baker, the 14th District's Titus North, the 15th District's Greta Browne, and the 19th District's Derf Maitland. In other words, the Republicans -- desperate not to lose control of the U.S. House, and with Pennsylvania the key swing state -- may be using the Green Party again to rob votes from the Democrats.<br><br>Compared to the Green Party, you do have to give Blackwater USA some credit.<br><br>At least they admit that they're mercenaries.<hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--> <p></p><i></i>