Hot Air Video: RNC Refund
posted at 5:46 pm on June 26, 2007 by Bryan
Our fourth anti-amnesty ad: If the Senate won’t listen, we’ll have to speak its language.
Here’s the blip version, in case YouTube malfunctions.
Here’s the script:
They just don’t listen.
You’ve called, you’ve faxed, you’ve e-mailed your objection to the Illegal Alien Amnesty Bill. But they didn’t listen.
Instead, they did the bidding of Big Business. Big Business lobbyists pour cash into politics and fund grand advertising campaigns. Most Americans are limited to small donations and have no voice in the media.
But if you’re a conservative fed up with Republican scheming on this bill, you can do something about it. If you gave to the party in the past year, you can demand your money back. Call the Republican National Committee today and demand a full refund.
If you gave to any senator or congressman in the past year, call their office and demand a full refund.
Money seems to be the one thing our politicians understand.
Maybe they’ll listen if we speak their language.
After you’ve made your refund calls, you can channel some of your anger into constructive work. One, Michelle has the “clay pigeon” amendment and it’s ready to be dug through. Two, you can join the effort that’s already underway in the comments to this post and dig through the Open Secrets archive to expose who owns the senators who voted for cloture today. Let’s expose what they’re doing, expose who owns them, and then cut off their money. If you want to win and kill this bill, this is how to do it.
Photoshop by Cry Havoc.
Blowback
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This is brilliant. Just what we need.
PRCalDude on June 26, 2007 at 5:48 PM
Bing Bada Boom
Limerick on June 26, 2007 at 5:54 PM
The RNC get no $$$ from us……they have been told to stop calling us and take us off their mailing list….until they return to their senses
robo on June 26, 2007 at 5:56 PM
I guess that’s my problem. I don’t give any of my money to politicians.
Frank Nitti on June 26, 2007 at 5:59 PM
Is there any legal basis for this? I mean, is the RNC under any obligation to honor a refund request?
Kensington on June 26, 2007 at 5:59 PM
Party policy.
Bryan on June 26, 2007 at 6:00 PM
I’ll bet they’ll be very unhappy to see this knowledge propogating tonight. I wonder how fast they can change the policy?
Kensington on June 26, 2007 at 6:02 PM
Hopefully they’ll change their behavior first.
Bryan on June 26, 2007 at 6:04 PM
Why don’t we organize a no work day? If seventy percent of working Americans just didn’t go to work, would they understand that?
There are just some jobs illegals won’t do.
Rustyw on June 26, 2007 at 6:08 PM
Bad Candy on June 26, 2007 at 6:08 PM
Damn, didn’t close my tags…
Bad Candy on June 26, 2007 at 6:09 PM
At first I blinked at the idea of requesting a refund of ANY donation made to ANY republican, but now I see the logic.
ALL elected republicans should be made to feel the pinch of the betrayal of the voters by the PARTY.
Labamigo on June 26, 2007 at 6:11 PM
My solution is this: Since the feds can decide which laws they wish to enforce, I submit that we the people decide which laws we wish to obey. For instance, I suggest we not pay our federal taxes. What do you think the response to that would be? There would be IRS agents, backed by Treasury and Secret Service agents knocking on and down your door. But Mr. Fed, you’ve decided not to enforce our immigration laws so I’ve decided not to obey our tax laws….
This would work….but how many would be willing to pay the price???????
ritethinker on June 26, 2007 at 6:15 PM
Money Trumps All – George Bush
Kini on June 26, 2007 at 6:15 PM
opensecrets is not providing the information we need.
PRCalDude on June 26, 2007 at 6:20 PM
I tried calling but the mailboxes are full – at least at the general comment line it was. I didn’t give money last year because I told them last year I wouldn’t give another dime until they stopped talking about amnesty – but I was going to tell them that if I had given money I’d be asking for it back. Just wanted to let them know I’m out here, thinking of them.
Reach out and touch someone folks – it feels good.
gonavy on June 26, 2007 at 6:23 PM
They’ll probably send you a card like Wal Mart does on it’s refunds but it will be the RNC card. Good for Elephant hats,buttons,shirts,Regan memorabilia, and 10 % of taco bell purchases.
Drtuddle on June 26, 2007 at 6:25 PM
Bryan,
Love ya man!
That’s gonna leave a mark.
On-my-soap-box on June 26, 2007 at 6:30 PM
http://www.fec.gov/finance/disclosure/srssea.shtml
This website seems interesting. Might help determine who is getting what from whom. Sorry, wasn’t an English Major in college.
DCA on June 26, 2007 at 6:31 PM
The feds can’t enforce anything without the cooperation of the citizenry. It’s our good faith that allows the fed to collect money to even use the worthless money they call greenbacks. Isn’t anybody tired of the opaque tax laws in this country? This is the real problem, we can’t see what’s actually collected and what is required to fund the corruption eeeerr fed. If we refuse to pay the taxes then the fed is in some serious shit as many foreign countries will get awfully anxious.
warpmine on June 26, 2007 at 6:31 PM
Refuse to pay those taxes and the government can’t repay it’s debt. That will grab attention ad force them to change without any blood spilled.
warpmine on June 26, 2007 at 6:33 PM
Great ads Bryan/Michelle!
Let’s see, there are approx. 130,000 visitors to this site per day, if we each communicate with 4 of our friends/family, that a possible exposure to this issue of up to 520,000 interested citizens… I’d say the spineless Republicans are now in a world of hurt…
Well done. Myself, as I have said in the past, I through with the GOP. Period.
Zorro on June 26, 2007 at 6:35 PM
We’re playing right into the hands of Hillary Clinton and other extreme socialists.
cardindex7 on June 26, 2007 at 6:35 PM
Happy to say I have not given a “red” cent to the rnc. all my charity money for the last 3 years has gone straight to operation gratitude.
Locrian on June 26, 2007 at 6:39 PM
Somebody help me parse this: Kyl’s 2006 individual contributions. Many are actually from businesses.
PRCalDude on June 26, 2007 at 6:39 PM
To all the “don’t pay your taxes” people – DON’T DO IT. You will learn a very hard lesson. I didn’t even owe but they said I did. I even proved I did not owe – I paid through the nose. It will not prove a thing except you like ulcers.
On-my-soap-box on June 26, 2007 at 6:39 PM
My solution is this: Since the feds can decide which laws they wish to enforce, I submit that we the people decide which laws we wish to obey. For instance, I suggest we not pay our federal taxes. What do you think the response to that would be? There would be IRS agents, backed by Treasury and Secret Service agents knocking on and down your door. But Mr. Fed, you’ve decided not to enforce our immigration laws so I’ve decided not to obey our tax laws….
This would work….but how many would be willing to pay the price???????
We can do this legally by use of the JURY system. We the people can refuse to find any and all defendents not guilty. Simple. Request a jury trial on all tickets, fines etc. When you are drafted for a jury vote not guilty. Now I’m not saying vote not guilty for a theft or murder. But if a law is in your mind unconstitutional like say the DMCA then by all means vote not guilty.
unseen on June 26, 2007 at 6:41 PM
And I don’t care how SMALL your donation was – demand it back. !!! Let them be bogged down with paperwork… maybe they can get some illegals to process the checks.
stenwin77 on June 26, 2007 at 6:44 PM
Whoa:
MARTORI, JOSEPH PHOENIX
AZ 85016 10/14/2005 500.00 ILX RESORTS INCORPORATED/CHAIRMAN/ 26020022044
MARTORI, JOSEPH PHOENIX
AZ 85016 08/15/2006 900.00 ILX RESORTS INCORPORATED/CHAIRMAN/ 26020620819
MARTORI, JOSEPH PHOENIX
AZ 85016 08/15/2006 1100.00 ILX RESORTS INCORPORATED/CHAIRMAN/ 26020620819
MARTORI, JOSEPH PHOENIX
AZ 85016 02/14/2006 500.00 ILX RESORTS INCORPORATED/CHAIRMAN/ 26020230472
MARTORI, JOSEPH MR PHOENIX
AZ 85016 10/19/2006 1200.00 ILX RESORTS INCORPORATED/CHAIRMAN/ 26021092151
MARTORI, JOSEPH MR PHOENIX
AZ 85016 10/19/2006 3800.00 ILX RESORTS INCORPORATED/CHAIRMAN/ 26021092151
MARTORI, JOSEPH MR II PHOENIX
AZ 85018 10/18/2006 2100.00 ILX RESORTS INCORPORATED/EXECUTIVE 26020942339
MARTORI, JOSEPH MR II PHOENIX
AZ 85018 10/18/2006 2900.00 ILX RESORTS INCORPORATED/EXECUTIVE 26020942339
PRCalDude on June 26, 2007 at 6:45 PM
I think the column which lists occupation is the company the contributor works for/employed by. Do you think that makes sense?
DCA on June 26, 2007 at 6:46 PM
The Martoris (Resort and Spa owners) contributed like $20,000 themselves.
PRCalDude on June 26, 2007 at 6:46 PM
http://query.nictusa.com/cgi-bin/can_ind/2005_S4AZ00030/1/M/
PRCalDude on June 26, 2007 at 6:46 PM
It appears Pandora’s box may now be open.
DCA on June 26, 2007 at 6:46 PM
The McClelland family (Shamrock foods) contributed like another $20,000
PRCalDude on June 26, 2007 at 6:49 PM
Is that REALLY Ken Mehlman responding to Michelle in the YouTube comments? The response was weak and tepid, so it just might be!
SouthernGent on June 26, 2007 at 6:50 PM
There’s like 10,000 contributions to Kyl alone, but that’s where the money is. We need to organize hit pieces on him and other ‘leaders’ pushing this. We also need to divy up the tasking of looking through this stuff.
PRCalDude on June 26, 2007 at 6:51 PM
The Meyer family (real estate developers) has been extremely generous: http://query.nictusa.com/cgi-bin/can_ind/2005_S4AZ00030/2/M/
PRCalDude on June 26, 2007 at 6:53 PM
There’s still a staffer at one of Senator Webb’s Virginia offices. Call now.
BadgerHawk on June 26, 2007 at 6:53 PM
I’ve thought about that possibility more than once in the last several days, but it seems we have no choice. We MUST let the GOP know we WILL NOT STAND FOR TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION! I, too gave no $$ last year, but I’m still on the phone letting anyone who will listen know how disgusted WE THE PEOPLE are with their trickery and deception.
Bryan/Michelle and all the rest, Thank You for leading the charge and lighting fires under our comfortable butts. YA’LL ROCK!
silenced majority on June 26, 2007 at 6:57 PM
No its a 15 year old kid. Just click on his user profile.
Valiant on June 26, 2007 at 6:59 PM
I suggest everyone look at their own Senator’s. Since I live on the East Coast, I probably am not the one best suited to dig through some of Kyl’s contributors and be able to draw any tangible conclusions.
DCA on June 26, 2007 at 6:59 PM
per redstate.
house GOP rejects Senate immigration bill. 114-23
good news
unseen on June 26, 2007 at 7:00 PM
unseen on June 26, 2007 at 7:00 PM
We’re playing right into the hands of Hillary Clinton and other extreme socialists.
cardindex7 on June 26, 2007 at 6:35 PM
BadgerHawk on June 26, 2007 at 7:01 PM
anyone want to help with boxer?
PRCalDude on June 26, 2007 at 7:04 PM
Also remember that for the list you and I are referencing only lists contributors for the 2005-2006 election cycle. Look at the 2007-2008 election cycle and Qwest Communications is the only contributor. The key piece of info is “What was Senator Kyl promised, when did this promise occur, and who is it coming from?” And this alleged promise I speak of is pure supposition, but I can’t imagine Senator Kyl is doing this for free. I would assume all promises will be paid once this bill becomes a law. Refer to School House Rock song for amplification.
DCA on June 26, 2007 at 7:09 PM
Quicker refund !! Sent donation about a month ago; checked with my bank and check has not cleared. Put a stop payment.
joeconn547 on June 26, 2007 at 7:11 PM
Actually I have been writing “Kill this immigration Bill or you won’t get another penny from me!!” on all the correspondence from the RNC soliciting donations and sending it back to them!! I didn’t realize I could ask for a refund!! Thanks guys…
vulcannomad on June 26, 2007 at 7:15 PM
I just happened to be looking at her list of individual contributors. Quite a few “Homemakers” droping $4,600 in her coffers in $2,300 increments. I find that interesting tosay the least.
DCA on June 26, 2007 at 7:15 PM
DCA on June 26, 2007 at 7:09 PM
With Kyl it is more a function of time than money. He thinks he is safe since he will not be up for reelection until 2012. By then if immigration is off the table he wins. The problem is the bill is so bad that if anything immigration will be worse in 2012 and the attack ads will write themselves.
unseen on June 26, 2007 at 7:16 PM
Most of them are the wives of the contributors below.
PRCalDude on June 26, 2007 at 7:21 PM
help out:
http://www.fec.gov/
PRCalDude on June 26, 2007 at 7:22 PM
I am tempted to call up and offer to make a donation just so that minutes later I can call and withdraw my donation.
m0nkeyb0y on June 26, 2007 at 7:23 PM
Yep. I just figured that out. It seems that most of Senator Boxer’s contributors have Hollywood/entertainment industry connections, are lawyers, or retirees, and their spouses (for the most part). A few partners of investment groups and their spouses as well. And in most cases both employed spouse and the “Homemaker” each contributed $2,300 on two occassions = $9,200/household.
DCA on June 26, 2007 at 7:31 PM
PRCD,
The Honorable Senator Feinstein has a longer list of contributors. A good read.
DCA on June 26, 2007 at 7:41 PM
The only money I’ve donated to the RNC in the last two years I don’t want back.
kjspeedial on June 26, 2007 at 7:44 PM
hold on
PRCalDude on June 26, 2007 at 7:45 PM
Maybe we can confuse them (the RNC) long enough to get our refunds if we tell them:
CyberCipher on June 26, 2007 at 7:53 PM
Boxer and Feinstein don’t have such huge contribution lists.
We need to find out the big donors and their companies. Then we need to find other donors from the same companies, because they get their VPs to donate and their housewives. unamused might be able to write a PERL script to search this for us. That would be a huge help.
PRCalDude on June 26, 2007 at 8:14 PM
The Senators who voted for this need to be replaced in any case. They are owned outright by someone in big business and do not deserve our support.
Please press 2 for English
drjohn on June 26, 2007 at 8:26 PM
Love it or leave it, never so true at this time. I need to embrace the Republican party (I is the key word). We still have plenty of Senators and House members figthing for us. On the other side (Dem’s)there’s only a few. Don’t throw out the baby with the bath water. We can still pick and choose who to send money too and after the vote will we know who to send it too.. The more the better thats a way to keep our guys in there because the Elite’s will be trying to force our guys out. got to go dinner is calling
Legions on June 26, 2007 at 8:31 PM
Here is the website which you can use to find out how much money your Representative/Senator raised during a particular election cycle. Below is a list of key Senators and their current election cycle fundraising status. For some reason I could only get info on Senator Webb from his 2005-2006 election campaign, but nothing for 2007-2008. Enjoy.
Bennett
Bingaman
Boxer
Brownback
Burr
Coleman
Collins
Craig
Domenici
Ensign
Gregg
Kyl
Lott
McConnell
Murkowski
Pryor
Snowe
Stevens
Warner
Webb
DCA on June 26, 2007 at 8:35 PM
PRCalDude on June 26, 2007 at 8:14 PM
Comment incoming shortly. Held up probably since it has a boatload of links. A little something for everyone.
DCA on June 26, 2007 at 8:37 PM
DCA on June 26, 2007 at 7:41 PM
A not so big secret here in California is that The
Honorablecrooked Senator Feinstein has engaged in more dishonest favor trading that the former congressman Randy “Duke” Cunningham did, for god’s sake somebody come up with a way to force criminal hearings into her husbands profiting from contracts she arranged for his company to receive.doriangrey on June 26, 2007 at 8:39 PM
The next time I donate to the RNC I’ll be sure to ask for my receipt. If there is a next time.
Dork B. on June 26, 2007 at 8:44 PM
Aye. Given all the data that’s out there, if we can find some kind of common key between contributors/corporations etc… and those who are so bent on amnesty, we may have a smoking gun.
The only way to follow this kind of money is with software. It just so happens I speak fluent 10101011010.
unamused on June 26, 2007 at 8:46 PM
You need to write some binary tree that stores all of the donors’ companies then keeps a count of each time that company appears and the amount of money. Can it search that page I sent you?
PRCalDude on June 26, 2007 at 8:49 PM
I remember e-mailing the HA bit to family in CA on her dirty tricks when she stepped down as head of the MILCON subcomitte. That was the first they heard about it, and from what I know, nothing else has been done. I long for the days of “B-1″ Bob Dornan.
DCA on June 26, 2007 at 8:49 PM
unamused,
I think plain text will be too hard, unless we just narrowed it down to specific senators we wanted to hit and cut and past everything. That could get messy.
PRCalDude on June 26, 2007 at 8:53 PM
Demand it in Peso’s.
subbottomfeeder on June 26, 2007 at 8:54 PM
DCA on June 26, 2007 at 8:49 PM
You can read about the whole corrupt affair here. Why the hell she isn’t in the cell right next to Cunningham is a criminal case of corruption in its own right.
http://sadbastards.wordpress.com/2007/05/02/senator-dianne-feinstein-corruption-burried-by-major-media/
doriangrey on June 26, 2007 at 8:55 PM
If you feed it the result page of a candidate search for individuals who gave to the candidate, it could chew through that. But since the FEC disclosure site is so search-driven, you can’t just set it loose on the whole site.
Here’s an example of the kind of page it could go to and then go to all the links:
http://query.nictusa.com/cgi-bin/can_ind/S6PA00100
unamused on June 26, 2007 at 8:55 PM
I reccomend starting with this list if possible.
DCA on June 26, 2007 at 8:56 PM
Whoops. Here, start at this page:http://www.fec.gov/finance/disclosure/norcansea.shtml
PRCalDude on June 26, 2007 at 8:56 PM
Yeah. Exactly. That would be a lot easier. Let’s get the gang of 14 first.
PRCalDude on June 26, 2007 at 8:57 PM
I love it when a plan comes together.
DCA on June 26, 2007 at 9:02 PM
One thing I’m noticing while thumbing through contributions to Arlen Specter is how many he got from out of state.
It appears that many out-of-state entities have quite the vested interest in ‘ol Arlen being in the senate.
unamused on June 26, 2007 at 9:05 PM
Heh. The entire plan rests in unamused capable hands.
PRCalDude on June 26, 2007 at 9:06 PM
You should check if ‘Satan’, ‘Beelzebub’, and ‘the Prince of Darkness’ are also donors.
PRCalDude on June 26, 2007 at 9:07 PM
This is how the process is supposed to work, right?
DCA on June 26, 2007 at 9:08 PM
OK, keep in mind I don’t have anything developed yet, just pieces.
For now, I’m using MS Excel to import the data from each of the pages listing individual contributors as a “Web Query” import. It’s working quite well, since those pages don’t have squat for formatting.
Anything in excel can be dumped to comma separated values, which will be way easy to work with later.
unamused on June 26, 2007 at 9:08 PM
I was thinking that too. You want us to send you some senators?
PRCalDude on June 26, 2007 at 9:09 PM
Check Senator Clinton’s list first for those donors. I’ll bet they pop up more than once.
DCA on June 26, 2007 at 9:10 PM
OK, here’s my plan:
Gonna download a freeware scraping tool that will pull all this info and put it into a local database for me.
From the db, you guys can tell me what kinds of links between donors/candidates you want to find and I will write the queries and post the output somewhere.
This could take a few days…
unamused on June 26, 2007 at 9:13 PM
All I need is a list of who we want to go after for screwing us over amnesty. I’m going to use my old friend Specter to develop the tool.
Once all is said and done, we would have a really useful tool for cracking the whip on present and future politicians!
We sure nobody’s already done this?
unamused on June 26, 2007 at 9:15 PM
I’m doing Kyl right now. McCain would be awesome, and Miss Lindsey. I’ll create a data page on my site so you can just download it.
PRCalDude on June 26, 2007 at 9:16 PM
BTW, what’s the upper bound of rows excel can store on a page?
PRCalDude on June 26, 2007 at 9:17 PM
Oh, and how many pages per letter of the alphabet? Just put all on one?
PRCalDude on June 26, 2007 at 9:18 PM
10K or so.
DCA on June 26, 2007 at 9:24 PM
unamused on June 26, 2007 at 9:13 PM
Can you cross check Senator Feinstein URS of San Francisco and the Perini Corporation of Framingham, Mass. ?
As you can see here Senator Feinstein’s connection to big business and corruption make her the perfect target and very probably the lowest hanging of the fruit. Come on dude, just show us the connection……..Perhaps we can even get Bryan to do a special article on her, kind of a first batter up kind of thing…
doriangrey on June 26, 2007 at 9:25 PM
I was giving each page it’s own sheet.
Hopefully this will all be academic soon. :)
freshmeat.net is our ally.
unamused on June 26, 2007 at 9:25 PM
unamused,
For the wives, used the same address but different name as your search criteria. Some of them call themselves ‘family planners.’
PRCalDude on June 26, 2007 at 9:26 PM
Should I start over?
PRCalDude on June 26, 2007 at 9:27 PM
Oh, believe me, Diane “I’ll be taking a look at the Fairness Doctrine” Feinstein is on my short list.
This tool will go way beyond amnesty. If we can use it to draw clear links to inappropriate funding, for any candidate, we will have taken back some control.
You can’t hide anything from a good algorithm.
unamused on June 26, 2007 at 9:28 PM
No. Keep doing it however you’ve been doing it. Worst case scenario is that we have more than we need.
unamused on June 26, 2007 at 9:29 PM
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