The BIAW plans to spend a shitload of cash, circumventing campaign finance laws in an attempt to open up a second front against Gov. Chris Gregoire’s re-election campaign. But don’t take it from me:
If you’ve listened to drive-time radio in recent weeks, you’ve doubtless heard an anti-Gov. Chris Gregoire radio spot sponsored by an outfit called “ChangePAC.” It’s really the BIAW in disguise.
On a June 2 report, ChangePAC reported a $245,000 donation from the BIAW, enough to more than pay for a radio campaign that to date has totaled just over $200,000.
The BIAW has since brought that number up to $500,000. That’s a half million in radio ads in June. I haven’t heard much about this from the legacy media; I know that “pointing things out” and “drawing conclusions” is icky icky blogger stuff, but when a special interest group flaunts campaign finance rules, I expect to read about it. You know, in the paper.
Are they doing anything different than moveon.org or the swift boaters or other national organizations? It doesn’t appear so from the ads themselves – these sorts of very thinly disguised campaign ads were all the rage in 2004 from 501 (c) and/or 527 groups. (See http://www.stealthpacs.org/profile.cfm?Org_ID=218 for example.)
Or is it WA State law BIAW is breaking?
Wow the righties like to complain about the union and then hope you don’t notice the BIAW. Hypocrite shit 101!
The BIAW radio ads are a pack of lies. They claim “hundreds” of projects costing “billions of dollars” paid for by the 9 1/2-cent gas tax increase are behind schedule. That’s utterly false.
@1 Typical wingnut tactic. When they get caught they try to defend themselves by saying things like “the Democrats are just like us” or “Moveon.org is the same as the swift boaters.” That’s a crock. Republican slimers are in a (low) class of their own. No one else even comes close to those guys.
Roadkill @ 4
MoveMorOn.org is EXACTLY the same as the Swift Boaters. Slimy tactics, sneaky money and mudslinging.Roadkill @ 3
Oh. So it is THOUSANDS of projects that are behind schedule?
BIAW was probably giving them the benefit of the doubt.
Good to know your on top of something besides a roofied Mrs. Rabbit.
In the WingNut mind, lying is OK because, even if they are lying, they are still ‘right’.
After I posted about this “shell PAC” over on Postman’s blog, he modified his story to cover this issue.
A bill was introduced last session to address this evasion of the law but it did not get passed as it was tied to other provisions which got hung up. This issue should be addressed next session.
5 Nope, there’s a difference.
MoveOn tells the truth.
Ever heard of the truth, Mark? It’s that thing that keeps biting you in the ass.
Did the BIAW give up on Walking for Washington after they got outed by NPI?
Wonder what they’ll do after getting outed this time?
I think BIAW has way too much L & I taxes to spend on politics. That money is supposed to go to injured workers.
@5 MoveOn tells the truth.
Good one, AF… Oh, you were serious?
@5 Bullshit. Lying is all you fuckwads have left. Suck on it.
@6 See #13.
Roadkill @ 13
TRANSLATION: “No facts support my opinions. Revert to Profanity Mode.”
Barack Obama yesterday:
I pick the second one. What is YOUR choice?
From the new Greenberg Quinal Rosner poll:
And really, it couldn’t happen to a grumpier, more hostile guy.
ArtFart@9 shitted his pants with:
5 Nope, there’s a difference. MoveOn tells the truth.
You mean this truth – blaming Rush Limbaugh for “Barack the Magic Negro” when it was a black LA Times reporter who penned the story?
You mean this truth – the lie of McCain saying he wanted to carry the Iraq war for another 100 Years when he said the opposite?
Need more proofs of their lies Farty Art?
Yep, thems MoveOn Morons surely tell da truths.
The subtitle of this thread is
Lefties SUCK
It was sooo nice and quiet today without the PuddyBitch and his dumbass blather.
Sigh…
Daddy Love–
Off topic, aren’t you?
So does anyone want to pretend that the BIAW disguising their involvement in an ad campaign designed to gain them advantage as a commercial lobby is the same as the Swift Boat Veterans, who despite their obvious mendacity were not a commercial lobby wanting to gain from Goerge Bush’s re-election?
21 Cynical
Yes.
21
But McCain will still lose.
Heck, I just went back to http://www.electoral-vote.com, and guess what?
Obama 317 electoral votes
McCain 227
270 to win.
TRM was saying that Obama would get a “bounce” from being named the presumptive nomineee, but how fucking long will this bounce keep bouncing? McCain is toast.
I want everyone to take notice of something. Virtually every single post on this blog can be boiled down to one of two things.
Rossi bad, Gregoire good.
or
Reichert bad, Burner good.
NAMBLA @ 16
The only way you can be in favor of the second paragraph — especially the highlighted part — is if you believe in vouchers and the dismantling of WEA.
25
I’d add a third:
You, bad.
Gee, Roger Rabbit is retired, so I understand his ability to place mulitiple posts on virtually every thread. But Mark & Puddy claim to be “real producers”, but seem to spend full time on this forum.
I suspect that they are, in reality, Republican operatives working full-time as “Astroturf”, as Michael pointed out in a previous thread – political operatives trying to disguise themselves as grass-roots support.
Astroturf Goes Blogging
The McCain website tells it’s operatives that they will be “rewarded points” after their comments have been verified. It also assigns “talking points” for them to bring up on the blogs. I wonder what what they get for the “points”????
John McCain: Spread the Word.
26 TRM
Wrong. There are lots of things we can do to improve education. But NCLB isn’t one of them.
Reforming educational funding is, so that kids in rich areas don’t get better education than kids in poor areas just because they’re in a rich area.
@ 25
And here you thought you were posting on a centrist blog all this time. Doesn’t paint a pretty picture of your comprehension skills.
Troll @ 25:
To be more precise it’s:
Liberals good, conservatives bad.
Always has been, always will be.
Ignorant idiot spotted @ post #20.
@31
A bunch of people in Nagasaki and Hiroshima might disagree with that.
@33: And a bunch of people in our country without healthcare, being screwed by the insurance companies, losing their jobs, paying more taxes to pay off the debt (due to an unnecessary war), the million or so dead or leaving Iraq for their own safety (due to an unnecessary war) might be inclined to agree with GBS. If you have to go back to a questionable WWII decision to find a democratic “mistake” – what does that say about the last 64 years?
@ 33:
They should have given serious contemplation to that thought on December 6th, 1941. Because the following morning the fucked with Demcorats and, when you do that, you just might get a nuke or two shoved up your ass.
Thanks for pointing out that we are some bad ass mother fuckers when it comes to defending America.
Unlike the Republican pussies who are losing the War on Terror and created a stalemate in Iraq.
How long have you guys been trying to kill a 6’4″ Arab pulling a kidney machine around with him in the high mountains of Pakistan?
Yeah, thanks for playing. Do yourself a favor and shut up. Really.
Apology to Puddy:
Yesterday I was all over Puddy about something he wrote – turned out to be a typo and Puddy was man enough to admit it. Thank you Puddy. I don’t agree with you – but I respect you for saying that.
@35 I’m sure I’ll regret this, but…. So you approve of the hundreds of thousands, or possibly millions of additional casualties that FDR’s short-sighted “unconditional surrender” demand engendered? Or the substition of Stalinism, for Hitlerism, in Europe? Yeah that one was great, huh? How about that fuck Johnson and Vietnam? He did a bang-up job there, alright.
Save your outrage dude. You Dims are just as fucked up as the Reps – you’re just too willfully blind to see it.
Wow the righties like to complain about the union and then hope you don’t notice the BIAW. Hypocrite shit 101!
WTF?? How does the BIAW close out entire idustries from competitors and then extorts it’s members for dues used for politics again??? I missed that one.
Dog
Tell that to the employee who gets fired because her boss woke up on the wrong side of the bed and decided to fire the first person he saw when entering the place of work. Lot of freedom there for the employee, right, Dog? Go lick your balls. The reason employment litigation has escalated in this nation is because fucks like you have destroyed the unions. But, of course, you naturally want to deny wronged employees the keys to the courthouse, as well. Any impediment to corporate fucking of employees is bad, right, Dog?
Brad Spears of the BIAW is just another commie-fascist, no different than our resident trolls. Rossi is the BIAW’s lackey.
It’s long past time to turn off the BIAW’s L&I spigot.
@39 Don’t know where you’ve been working, but I’ve never seen anything like that occur.
Sounds like you’re assuming that “management” is always in the wrong. What if the woman in your scenario is a slacker? What if she isn’t productive? Of what possible good would a union be, if that particular union member/employee did indeed deserve to be fired, but the company was forced to keep her around, or risk the wrath of the union?
So what is it that you’re advocating? A ‘Right to Work’, or what?
41 IB
Weird speculation. A union negotiates a contract with an employer. The union uses the power of bargaining as a collective unit of labor as its leverage, the employer its power of providing the economic engine of capital. Both sides must live up to that contract. The terms of that contract are up to the employer and the union, and have nothing whatsoever to do with your opinions. With what part of that do you have a problem?
What does McCain’s voting record and public statements suggest about his views on women and children? Here’s just a few recent instances:
— John McCain has a long, long record of supporting abstinence only as opposed to modern family planning methods. He reportedly even opposed making abstinence only programs medically accurate and scientifically based.
— John McCain voted against requiring healthcare insurance providers to cover birth control and hormone replacement therapy.
— In August of 2007, John McCain voted against reauthorizing the State Children’s Health Insurance Program for five years and called Bush’s subsequent veto of the measure the ‘right call.’
— While we’re on that one, John McCain repeatedly voted to cut or end various childrens’ healthcare programs, and in 2005 in a truly depraved act he chose tax cuts for billionaires over the healthcare of children.
— Just this year John McCain said he opposed a Senate bill that would secure equal pay for women and didn’t even bother to cast a vote on it. The bill was killed by Senate Republicans.
Can you say ‘loooooooser?” I knew you could.
THE ONLY FIGHT GBS EVER SAW WAS IN A BAR.
You want to keep reliable birth control out of the hands of females? OK. You see, we have reliable genetic testing now and laws that require male child support. Have fun, boys.
GEE NO MENTION OF OUR GOV GIVING THE INDIANS A 140 MILLION.THEN THE INDIANS GIVE HER A 200K KICK BACK TO HER CAMPAIN.GEE 6 DEMOCRATS GET GREAT DEAL ON THERE HOUSE FROM COUNTRY WIDE AND DODD AND THE CONGRESSMAN SAYS HE DID NOT KNOW HE WAS GETTING THE LOWER RATE.YEAH RIGHT CAN YOU SEE THEM AT THE CLOSING AND NOT KNOWING THE GREAT DEAL THEY WERE GETTING.IF IT WERE THE LEFT YOU ASSHOLES WOULD BE ON THIS LIKE STINK ON SHIT.
46 pu
What an amazing mind. It is so sad to see you descend into madness.
I have the feeling, though I cannot decipher your post completely, that you are making some sort of comment about the donations to Chris Gregoirer from Indian tribes after she rejected some sort of measure that would have cost them some money.
Do you know how quid pro quo works? I pay you money, and THEN you do something for me. If instead, you do something as a politician of which I approve, and THEN I give you money, then all that’s happening is that I am backing someone financially who I know by their actions is supporting my interests.
On the other hand, if you have some kind of PROOF of a prior agreement between the parties (and I think we all fucking know that you don’t), then you might have a case. Get back to us on that, OK?
Remember when that lying cunt Rossi claimed to be a Real Estate Broker but was in fact only licensed as a Real Estate Agent? How is it these right wing fucks can VIOLATE THE LAW – which Rossi CLEARLY did when he represented himself as a Broker – and not get prosecuted? Oh yes I forgot; the traitors on the right are all for rule of law as long as it doesn’t apply to them. They’re all for investigation of “scandal” as long as it’s not THEIR scandal. They’re all for government accountability except when they’re running the government. Asswipes!
Steve @ 40
“It’s long past time to turn off the BIAW’s L&I spigot.”
Gregoire had that opportunity a year or two back, and she blew it. She could have adjusted the L&I premium rates downward, so that the “retro refund” profits enjoyed by BIAW would have been reduced. Instead, Gregoire gave an accross-the-board pro-rated refund to all employers (which amounted to double-dipping for those employers in the “retro” pool), and kept L&I premiums high (so that “retro refunds” will likewise stay high).
Now all of this is going to come back to bite Gregoire very hard, since the BIAW is now able to dump a quarter million dollars a week into attacking Gregoire — and it is still only June!
47, IT won’t matter if you don’t think it STINKS!
Gregoire’s tribal kickback is all over the news today. I listened to it and saw it all over the net today.
She can tell us why her Shit Kickbacks don’t stink!
Hey, NAMBLA! You were talkin’ polls earlier.
How about this story from ABC:
http://www.abcnews.go.com/GMA/.....id=5183218
Related:
http://abcnews.go.com/PollingU.....id=5177916
@42 You either didn’t actually read my post, or you’re deliberately taking it out of context. I asked questions, referring to a previous post – don’t know that I really offered any opinions in regards to unions.
Some say “The Real Mark” prefers sex with goats rather than sheep. Polling data from the goats shows that “The Real Mark” is not their preferred option.
Richard–
FYI
There are only Retro Refunds when Retro participants outperform non-Retro.
Refunds are earned by improved safety, creating light-duty jobs, keeping injured workers on salary with benefits etc. etc.
Call L&I’s actuary.
He will explain it to you.
The law requires L&I to basically charge adequate rates each year based on anticipated results. It’s kind of like chasing your tail. If you take away the Retro incentive, rates would likely go up!
It’s not a matter of simply arbitrarily reducing premium.
Didn’t you run for Insurance Commissioner?
If you do, it is important to understand the basic concept of Retrospective Rating.
It is Insurance 101!
Mr. C @ 54
What these Lefties will NEVER comprehend is that taxes, fees and premiums aren’t an entitlement for the government. The idea that overpayments should be refunded generates a droning “does not compute… does not compute…” in their brains and can cause a meltdown. You know, like when they try to elect a perky homeowner’s association head to Congress.
Cynical @ 54
You BIAW folks sure get really defensive when someone threatens to diminish your revenue stream :)
The higher L&I sets its premiums, the larger the Retro Refund will be. With Retro, the performance of the employer (or employer association, in the case of BIAW) is compared to the amount of premiums paid. The higher the premium, the larger the Retro Refund. And BIAW gets a cool 20% off the top — which amply funds the organization, and leaves millions available for political activism.
You folks must be really glad that Gregoire either isn’t savvy enough to understand this relationship between L&I premium rates and Retro Refunds, or lacks the intestinal fortitude to do anything about it.
By the way — I am not opposed to the Retro Refund program at all in principle. Things such as “improved safety, creating light-duty jobs, keeping injured workers on salary with benefits” are very admirable. To the extent that BIAW gets Retro Refunds because of actual improvements in safety and claims administration — more power to them.
But to the extent BIAW gets Retro Refunds because L&I premiums are too high to begin with, Gregoire has really shot herself in the foot.
Correctnotright: Yep that’s me! Thanks!
Now back to our normal attack mode!
Daddy NAMBLA Love skews the argument again.
“– In August of 2007, John McCain voted against reauthorizing the State Children’s Health Insurance Program for five years and called Bush’s subsequent veto of the measure the ‘right call.’”
We all know why SCHIP was voted against NAMBLA.
But like Pelletizer, you can’t be truthful! Keep up the great job!
The swiftboating of Gregoire on the tribal compact is fascinating. It just goes to show that if the BIAW tries to sell a story long enough they eventually get a bite (poor Chris McGann – Tom McCabe hoodwinked him).
What has been forgotten is the overwhelming rejection of expanding non-tribal casino gambling in 2004 as part of I-892. State gaming revenue (tax) was to offset property taxes. This Eyman initiative went down in flames because of the citizen’s desire not to expand gambling.
Also, do we know how much the tribes expected to get from the expanded gambling the Spokane’s originally negotiated. My bet is that it more than offsets the supposed millions the state would have received. In other words why give money when they lost in the renegotiated compact.
@25 This is a liberal blog, stupid. If you want to cheerleading for the GOP’s pathetically inadequate candidates, try Stefan’s pathetic sucky blog — he’s in that business.
Richard @ 56–
You are wrong.
Higher premium rates do not translate directly into higher refunds.
It is a logical conclusion….but rate adequacy is not a factor in computing the Retro Refund Pool.
Call the L&I Actuary.
He compares the performance of Retro participants with Non-Retro.
I don’t care if you “attack” the Retro Program.
It is one of the few Government Programs where Workers, Employers & the State work well together and everyone benefits.
The problem is you are dead wrong about rate adequacy’s impact on refunds Richard.
You like to research things.
Why not this?
Instead, you simply “ass-u-me”.
TRM@51: These HA Donkey are in Heilary voter denial. When these “lovely level headed people” AKA Donkey racists say they can’t vote for a black man, most HAers put their head in the sand.
Me again.
(Parenthetically, I think Rossi has zero – 0 – chance of winning, even if the BIAW spends a billion dollars, but that’s beside the point.)
WILL: Your first sentence says the BIAW is “circuventing campaign laws”. My simple question is comment #1 went unanswered.. what laws? This is an honest question. I don’t support nor give a rat’s ass about the BIAW. I simply want to know what laws they are breaking (well, maybe circumventing and breaking aren’t the same thing, but the question still stands). Are these Federal laws (unlikely I guess for a state election)? If not, which WA laws are we talking about here?
Really, I am interested! I’d like to know!
Truth teller… The PDC laws require an ad to include a statement at the end about who funded it such as paid for by the Dino Rossi campaign or paid for by the BIAW.
In the case of these radio spots the BIAW ran the funding for them through a “shell PAC” known as ChangePAC and then produced the spot so that it says it was funded by Change PAC thus evading the intent of the law which was to inform the public of who paid for the spot.
BIAW has become known for its tactics and thus, if they were open the paid spots would be less effective as folks would take the message with several grains of salt.
64 – Thanks! Seems like the law needs a little reworking to avoid such dodges.