Americans Elect is Shady

-They refuse to disclose most of their funding.
-The funding that has been disclosed comes mostly from Arno Consulting, a far right organization that has been involved in 5 different voter fraud cases.
-Chairman Peter Ackerman is an investment banker with connections to Koch Industries and the Cato Institute. (http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/private/relationship.asp?personId=662219) (http://sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Cato_Institute)
-There is no oversight or transparency to their process.
-The way the site is run could easily push the results in the direction that the secret funders want it to go.


Arno Political Consultants Controversies (from wiki).

-In 2004, APC hired JSM who hired YPM who is accused of tricking people into registering to vote as a Republican.[2]
-In 2004, APC is accused of forging signatures on a petition to legalize slot machines in Miami-Dade and Broward counties.[5]
-In 2005, APC has come under fire for allegedly fraudulent ballot petitioning strategies, particularly pertaining to a Massachusetts anti-gay marriage proposal as put forth by the Massachusetts Family Institute.[6][7]
-In 2007, APC hired JSM, Inc. who hired independent contractors who gave snacks and food to homeless people in exchange for signing petitions and registering to vote.[8]
-In 2009, proponents of a payday loan veto referendum sued APC in Franklin County for breach of contract and negligence. 13,000 signatures were thrown out because the Form 15's had not been appropriately filled out. They were seeking $438,000. [9] Both parties reached an undisclosed settlement agreement on July 29th, 2009.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arno_Political_Consultants

>> ^marinara:

fill out your damn profile or i will intentionally confuse you with some other asshole prejudiced jerk off

fill out your damn profile or i will intentionally confuse you with some other asshole prejudiced jerk off

My pleasure! I was actually going to sift this yesterday morning, had the submission form all filled out, but then narcolepsied out before I actually put it in. Glad you were there to pick up the slack!

In reply to this comment by geo321:
Thanks so much! :

In reply to this comment by NicoleBee:
*doublepromote

I think it's that socialism works in other countries, and works quite well. While in the US capitalism has become very predatory, everyone is out to tie you up in confusing deals and contracts or hit you with hidden fees. There's almost no straight forward business being done when it comes to things that are considered "necessities" by most citizens.

Healthcare, every one says they are doing what they do to keep costs down...overwhelmingly your experience at the doctors office gets shorter and shorter, they order more tests that show nothing and you pay more and more. Most doctors, if you have even the slightest cause for a test, they are off the hook for frivolous tests....you should be able to trust the doctor to have your best interest in mind and not withhold information to earn themselves referral fees and what not.

Banking, just look at all the fees fiascos we've been having recently. Then look at the mortgage situation, they were filling out completely false paperwork in people's names and submitting it. Now they are coming to take your house, whether they have a right to do legally or not. They aren't so helpful with loans anymore either, you'll find it more difficult to get a reasonable loan (than say 7 years ago), despite all the federal aid and such they took in.

Phone, you have so many fees on cell phones and landlines. They used to toy with area codes and have "local long distance" areas that would change randomly over periods of time. I remember a friend of mine could walk across the street and make a no extra fees local call while at his house it was local long distance rates. It's equivalent to roaming on cell phones.

Internet, not only are they trying to pass laws to censor everything they rape you on most plans. You pay the same or more for less every year as they over burden their networks and never expand. Then complain about all the congestion like they weren't adding more people the whole time and it's YOUR fault.

Air travel, you get felt up, treated like a criminal, and you better have a smile on your face while this is all going down. Plus pay extra for your bags, use special containers, etc etc.

The idea of capitalism is great, but only when the companies can't leverage their monopolies or size to quit being competitive and become predatory. And we have predatory capitalism, where instead of offering the best possible services for the lowest possible prices, you get less and less as time goes on for the same money. Or they offer a "standard service" but it becomes more costly as times goes on for unexplainable reasons in many cases that usually end up being "Rising costs" but no one knows where or why they are rising.

Plus there's more and more barriers to entry for small businesses who only make enough to support their employees. New required licensing for a job they've never required licenses for previously, minimum insurance coverage for their work, minority ratio requirements if you are working on something that is receiving public funding.

And then we have outrageous requirements for jobs, such as 4 year degrees for jobs that even 10 years ago probably didn't have those requirements.

Rising education costs which pair up with the above point, making it even costlier to simply function in our capitalist society. Less apprenticeships and similar training programs to receive hands on experience under a working professional.

30 years, it's just become more and more complicated to do anything at all many times with no good reason for it being that way beyond allowing a small group of people to exploit everyone else.

Shady

-They refuse to disclose most of their funding.
-The funding that has been disclosed comes mostly from Arno Consulting, a far right organization that has been involved in 5 different voter fraud cases.
-Chairman Peter Ackerman is an investment banker with connections to Koch Industries and the Cato Institute. (http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/private/relationship.asp?personId=662219) (http://sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Cato_Institute)
-There is no oversight or transparency to their process.
-The way the site is run could easily push the results in the direction that the secret funders want it to go.


Arno Political Consultants Controversies (from wiki).

-In 2004, APC hired JSM who hired YPM who is accused of tricking people into registering to vote as a Republican.[2]
-In 2004, APC is accused of forging signatures on a petition to legalize slot machines in Miami-Dade and Broward counties.[5]
-In 2005, APC has come under fire for allegedly fraudulent ballot petitioning strategies, particularly pertaining to a Massachusetts anti-gay marriage proposal as put forth by the Massachusetts Family Institute.[6][7]
-In 2007, APC hired JSM, Inc. who hired independent contractors who gave snacks and food to homeless people in exchange for signing petitions and registering to vote.[8]
-In 2009, proponents of a payday loan veto referendum sued APC in Franklin County for breach of contract and negligence. 13,000 signatures were thrown out because the Form 15's had not been appropriately filled out. They were seeking $438,000. [9] Both parties reached an undisclosed settlement agreement on July 29th, 2009.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arno_Political_Consultants

>> ^Quboid:

>> ^conan:
>> ^EMPIRE:
Here in Portugal the law is similar to german. You obviously can install a video surveillance system, but you need to fill out a form informing the data protection agency, telling exactly what can be seen through the camera(s). Otherwise, that footage will never be accepted in a court of law as evidence.

Another fun fact in law differences just by the way: evidence illegaly obtained can sabotage a case in the US (at least has to be disregarded) whereas it makes no difference in Germany. Police unlawfully searches your home and find drugs? You will be prosecuted (but the copper also will).

That's interesting. I always thought it was weird that illegally obtained evidence is unusable, surely if it proves the guy did it then evidence is evidence? If it is obtained illegally, then whoever obtained it should be charged with whatever the illegal action was. Court cases should be "is the guy guilty" rather than "can we show the guy is guilty within the rules". I know it gets more complicated than this but on the face of it "evidence against Mr. Big is accepted, but you just implicated Officer Smith" seems right.


This is one thing that I feel very strongly that we (Americans) do right. I don't know how it really works in practice in other countries, but the way you describe it, it would be far too easy for a government to set up a massive illegal fishing expedition to look for any hints of illegal activity, then either have a fall guy or claim that it was an accident when they wanted to use the 'evidence'.

>> ^Quboid:

>> ^conan:
>> ^EMPIRE:
Here in Portugal the law is similar to german. You obviously can install a video surveillance system, but you need to fill out a form informing the data protection agency, telling exactly what can be seen through the camera(s). Otherwise, that footage will never be accepted in a court of law as evidence.

Another fun fact in law differences just by the way: evidence illegaly obtained can sabotage a case in the US (at least has to be disregarded) whereas it makes no difference in Germany. Police unlawfully searches your home and find drugs? You will be prosecuted (but the copper also will).

That's interesting. I always thought it was weird that illegally obtained evidence is unusable, surely if it proves the guy did it then evidence is evidence? If it is obtained illegally, then whoever obtained it should be charged with whatever the illegal action was. Court cases should be "is the guy guilty" rather than "can we show the guy is guilty within the rules". I know it gets more complicated than this but on the face of it "evidence against Mr. Big is accepted, but you just implicated Officer Smith" seems right.


Agreed, that seems the most sensible way to go.

>> ^conan:

>> ^EMPIRE:
Here in Portugal the law is similar to german. You obviously can install a video surveillance system, but you need to fill out a form informing the data protection agency, telling exactly what can be seen through the camera(s). Otherwise, that footage will never be accepted in a court of law as evidence.

Another fun fact in law differences just by the way: evidence illegaly obtained can sabotage a case in the US (at least has to be disregarded) whereas it makes no difference in Germany. Police unlawfully searches your home and find drugs? You will be prosecuted (but the copper also will).


That's interesting. I always thought it was weird that illegally obtained evidence is unusable, surely if it proves the guy did it then evidence is evidence? If it is obtained illegally, then whoever obtained it should be charged with whatever the illegal action was. Court cases should be "is the guy guilty" rather than "can we show the guy is guilty within the rules". I know it gets more complicated than this but on the face of it "evidence against Mr. Big is accepted, but you just implicated Officer Smith" seems right.

>> ^EMPIRE:

Here in Portugal the law is similar to german. You obviously can install a video surveillance system, but you need to fill out a form informing the data protection agency, telling exactly what can be seen through the camera(s). Otherwise, that footage will never be accepted in a court of law as evidence.


Another fun fact in law differences just by the way: evidence illegaly obtained can sabotage a case in the US (at least has to be disregarded) whereas it makes no difference in Germany. Police unlawfully searches your home and find drugs? You will be prosecuted (but the copper also will).

Here in Portugal the law is similar to german. You obviously can install a video surveillance system, but you need to fill out a form informing the data protection agency, telling exactly what can be seen through the camera(s). Otherwise, that footage will never be accepted in a court of law as evidence.

>> ^deathcow:

This is pretty awesome.
I got into Judas Priest when I bought a JVC RC-M90 boombox in 1983 (p.s. I sold it this year for 3x the original cost : ) and the first tape I listened to was from my brother, who gave me "Screaming For Vengeance" on cassette.
I had a 4x4 foot "tapestry" of Screaming For Vengeance on my wall soon after and over the next few years filled out my cassette box with stuff going all the way back to this.
My favorite of all time (back then anyway) was the live version of Green Manalishi from Unleashed in the East. (I learned yesterday it was a cover, and Fleetwood Mac has a funky version of it.)
This old stuff has a character all its own.
I really liked the album "Point of Entry" which nobody else seemed to.
I made a killer Judas Priest logo on my Commodore 64.


Point of Entry is one of my faves. Desert Planes is such a great song. Same with Turning Circles.

This is pretty awesome.

I got into Judas Priest when I bought a JVC RC-M90 boombox in 1983 (p.s. I sold it this year for 3x the original cost : ) and the first tape I listened to was from my brother, who gave me "Screaming For Vengeance" on cassette.

I had a 4x4 foot "tapestry" of Screaming For Vengeance on my wall soon after and over the next few years filled out my cassette box with stuff going all the way back to this.

My favorite of all time (back then anyway) was the live version of Green Manalishi from Unleashed in the East. (I learned yesterday it was a cover, and Fleetwood Mac has a funky version of it.)

This old stuff has a character all its own.

I really liked the album "Point of Entry" which nobody else seemed to.

I made a killer Judas Priest logo on my Commodore 64.

Filled out your tax returns?

(Shakes head)

Why?

I don't want to.

Good. (snaps photo)

Thanks for trying to at least provide some references Ghark. I'm curious how credible you honestly believe them to be though. All but 2 of them are to the same blog, the one is a very short piece by Ynet with nothing more to say than that SANA declares itself the victim and the other is a different blog reporting proof that America supports activists in authoritarian countries.

That last bit seems to be the most veracious of all the claims, but I wouldn't call it 'news'. America(sadly, like virtually all governments) not only supports repressed activists but has also actively supported what can only be called terrorists and has on multiple occasions participated in the overthrow of foreign rulers through covert and even overt assassinations. Don't mistake my claims here as being based on the naive notion that America or the CIA would never do anything like this, as they have and without a doubt will again. My claim is much different, and so is Tarpley's.

The important nuance I think your missing in my disagreement with Tarpley here is that his claim is NOT CIA support for a Syrian uprising. His claim is that there is, in fact, no legitimate Syrian uprising and that it is all a facade orchestrated by the CIA, Mossad, or whomever else he thinks is the puppet master. The truth of the matter is that the Syrian people are now living under their second generation of brutal dictatorship. The truth of the matter is that the Syrian people have seen the difference between the free world and their own, and those people have taken to the streets. Importantly to our discussion here, one of the ways they have seen the difference between freedom and repression has been through social media, like facebook, twitter and to at least some extent our dear videosift here as well.

The sources you referenced supporting Tarpley's notions on Syria all point back to either SANA, the Syrian state media, Al-Alam, the Iranian state media or XinhuaNet, China's state media. For brevity I won't point out the massive number of articles from the NYtimes, the CBC and BBC all reporting on the Syrian protesters being brutally repressed and murdered by Syrian forces. If you wish, I can fill out a page with supporting links, but I hope you might be able to recognize that at the very minimum these sources balance out with equal support. I would go further and posit that state funded media like CBC and BBC are vastly more independent from the state message than SANA and Al-Alam, but it isn't necessary to my argument.

If you accept my generous notion that the above can be called a draw, and we throw them out as having a bias one way or the other, what are we left with?

We are left with Al Jazeera reporting an entirely different story than Tarpley's:
http://blogs.aljazeera.net/liveblog/Syria

If you want more links from Al Jazeera they have a wealth of stories from all manner of separate and independent sources all backing their overall view that there is a legitimate internal Syrian uprising independently demanding the basic freedoms of a democracy, and the Syrian government met them with deadly repression, over and over and over again.

Is Al Jazeera a pro American tool of the CIA?

I'm going to cite what I consider to be very basic, fundamental facts but if you want references for them I can provide them if you don't trust a 5 second google verification of them.

The UN human rights committee voted 122 in favor of condemning Syria's crackdown, are they a pro American tool of the CIA?

The Arab League has threatened to revoke Syria's membership and asked that Syria allow their monitors into the country as a path to reconciliation, which Syria rejected.

Is the Arab League a pro America tool of the CIA?