Poor, poor Eric O’Keefe. It’s sad enough that he and his family live in fear of me.

But, at least the Koch-connected architect of Term Limits, director of the Wisconsin Club for Growth, founder of the casually-discarded Sam Adams Alliance (formed when Americans for Limited Government was busted slushing dark money into state initiatives coast to coast in 2006 and O’Keefe was President of same), fired Libertarian Party executive director and “Crane Machine” strategist has a champion in George Will. Just hear the crocodile tears flow:

The nastiest political tactic this year
George F. Will / Washington Post

The early-morning paramilitary-style raids on citizens’ homes were conducted by law enforcement officers, sometimes wearing bulletproof vests and lugging battering rams, pounding on doors and issuing threats. Spouses were separated as the police seized computers, including those of children still in pajamas. Clothes drawers, including the children’s, were ransacked, cellphones were confiscated and the citizens were told that it would be a crime to tell anyone of the raids.…

Awwww.

From the 2009 Goldwater Institute annual report

Why, those jack-booted thugs from the gum’mint were just all, well, JACKBOOTY!

Some raids were precursors of, others were parts of, the nastiest episode of this unlovely political season, an episode that has occurred in an unlikely place. This attempted criminalization of politics to silence people occupying just one portion of the political spectrum has happened in Wisconsin, which often has conducted robust political arguments with Midwestern civility….

Oh, sad, sad day! Why, it’s just AWFUL that this question has been begged: Will pretends that “attempted criminalization of politics to silence people occupying just one portion of the political spectrum” establishes beyond a reasonable doubt that there was no reason whatsoever for such raids, that there WAS no criminal conspiracy and that Eric O’Keefe was just innocently minding his own business sacrificing goats to Satan.

Thank Baphomet that millionaire O’Keefe has George Will (and a high profile Washington D.C. team of attorneys) defending him. I mean, what’s a poor individual millionaire and his billionaire buddies to do?

There is no truth left in Will. Just the endless sophistry of fascism. After all, Mussolini — who coined the term, and ought to know — defined ‘fascism’ as the marriage of corporate and state interests, and the Koch Brothers’ stealth funding of every organization O’Keefe seems connected with seems entirely in line with Benito’s definition.

They don’t mind, of course, when this kind of thing happens (and it happens every damned day) to people accused of growing pot, or just having the bad luck to be at an address the SWAT team misread. Or in Ferguson, Missouri.

Funny, George Will had no sympathy for
those poorer citizens exposed to THIS.

But, this isn’t about those PEONS! No: it’s about GOP stealth-power operatives, known for shady finances, dirty tricks and endless masks of “foundations” that is given cover and an0nymity to dark money and darker conspiracies, using  the IRS code.

But when the IRS tries to see whether that code is being misused, they are attacked with outrageous accusations of impropriety by the Improprietors of this Political Pornography. And then their lap dogs are sic’ed on the IRS. You know, like George Will.

Will didn’t mind when Governor Scott Walker did his level best to crush unions, protests, free speech and Wisconsin’s workers, but, you know, raids attempting to establish a crime that eats at the very foundations of our democracy … well THAT gets George all weak in the kneesies.

Listen to Justice Will pontificating on the Constitution — which he generally uses as toilet paper:

“Well, OK — Just as long as we get our way.”

In collaboration with Wisconsin’s misbegotten Government Accountability Board, which exists to regulate political speech, Chisholm has misinterpreted Wisconsin campaign law in a way that looks willful. He has done so to justify a “John Doe” process that has searched for evidence of “coordination” between Walker’s campaign and conservative issue advocacy groups.

And listen to this straw man argument:

Such misbehavior takes a toll on something that already is in short supply: belief in government’s legitimacy.

Really? I thought undermining the legitimacy of a twice-elected president did that. I thought cheating and tampering with elections did that. I thought the fascist surveillance state that George Will was a cheerleader for just as long as it was HIS side doing it did that.

Heck, I thought invading a sovereign nation halfway around the world on false pretenses and never admitting that the murder of a million Iraqis was “wrong” did that. But perhaps Mr. Will is of a more delicate temperament than am I. He continues in the next sentence:

The federal government’s most intrusive and potentially punitive institution, the IRS, unquestionably worked for Barack Obama’s reelection by suppressing activities by conservative groups. Would he have won if the government he heads had not impeded political participation by many opposition groups? We will never know.

That is a straight-up monstrous lie. Any newspaper with a soul would fire the sonofabitch for making statements like that. But no: Will can lie his posterior off with impunity. After all he’s a Republican Confederate, and being a GOP means never having to say you’re sorry.

Or, in fact, a sorry sonofabitch. George lies on, manfully:

Would the race between Walker and Democrat Mary Burke be as close as it is if a process susceptible to abuse had not been so flagrantly abused to silence groups on one side of Wisconsin’s debate? Surely not.

Oh, horsefeathers.

Really, George?

THAT is why the race is so close? You can SEE that from inside the Beltway, can you? You can KNOW the minds and hearts of the electorate, of the Supreme Court, of the laws, and that there was nothing criminal going on to destroy the foundation of open and free elections?  You can SEE all that from there?

And George Will, too, evidently.

What prescription are you using on those owlish glasses? 20/infinity?

I wish that I could be modulated and even-tempered in this, but I am so tired of that Cracker shyster and his phony civility masking the most vicious barbarism imaginable.

Another GOP Barbarian

I haven’t covered Eric O’Keefe and his electoral and political shenanigans for the past eight years because there was nothing there. That this was all a misunderstanding.

No: George Will is a corporate whore, and, for the second time (IIRC) he jumps to the defense of Koch operative O’Keefe with all the slick mendacity at his scrofulous disposal.

I know this is horsepuckey.

Perhaps even George Will does, too.

Not that it would matter to him. He lost his allegiance to the truth a long time ago, and now operates as the “go to” apologist for Republican Confederate depredations.

The “Tea Party”/Koch agenda is remarkably similar to 
the philosophy of the C.S.A. the difference being that 
slavery is only permitted via outsourcing beyond the
national borders or out of sight with undocumented workers.

But what the hell. I’ve come up with evidence, arguments and reasoning until I’m blue in the face.

And yet the Festival of Mendacity® continues, undaunted by fact, reason or, most importance, votes.

Still, I DO stand in awe of Will’s ability to pack so much lying weaselling dishonesty into a single paragraph. He ducks, dodges and baits the opposition.

On that issue, he’s surely deserving of our respect.

He IS Washington’s Master Baiter.

Courage.

Post Script: I have covered them at length. CLICK on the tags “Howie Rich Gang” and “Koch Brothers” on my blog for more articles than you can comfortably handle.

Oh, and why did this “article” appear?

Seems the O’Keefe forces are butthurt, having attempted to quash the investigation by going to federal court. But listen:

Appeals court denies request to rehear John Doe civil rights case
By M.D. Kittle  /   October 23, 2014   
Part 140 of 140 in the series Wisconsin’s Secret War*

MADISON, Wis. – A federal appeals court has denied a petition from Wisconsin conservatives targeted in a politically charged investigation** asking the full court to rehear their case against John Doe prosecutors.

In its decision, filed Thursday, the 7th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals wrote that none of the judges on the full 10-member court has requested a vote on rehearing, and all of the judges on the three-member panel that tossed out the conservatives’ civil rights lawsuit last month voted to deny rehearing. Attorneys for Eric O’Keefe and the Wisconsin Club for Growth, plaintiffs in the complaint, declined to comment Thursday afternoon….

[* Shades of my long series on Eric O’Keefe, Howie Rich and the Koch Brothers. Note that the “publication” is one of those stealth “state news” propaganda mills funded by Eric O’Keefe through his wife’s “Lucy Burns Foundation” and its subsidiary “Franklin” foundation.]

[** “politically charged” is the BS term used by the propagandists. Several stories have debunked this notion, as the investigation has been non-partisan. But, you know, any false charges are echoed in the modern stenographer news media. A half-decent newspaper editor would have blue-penciled that slanted phrase’s judgment.]

This is all about media manipulation, and, you might note, it’s amazing how upset they are at an investigation into their finances, if they were ACTUALLY on the up and up.

But, instead, not only did the D.C. legal team attack the investigation itself in a pre-emptive strike (a tactic usually only reserved for mob bosses and Nixon White House employees, BUT they attempted to PERSONALLY attack, sue and hold financially liable the prosecutor at the head of the investigation. Sadly for them:

In a Q&A with Wisconsin Reporter, published Thursday, O’Keefe said, contrary to the appeals court panel’s trust in the state judiciary, Wisconsin’s court system has “failed to provide timely relief, and have only been asked to halt the current probe.”

“We have asked the federal courts for permanent protection from current and prospective abuses.”

Oh, and this:

Kittle’s work has appeared on Fox News, and in Human Events, Reason Magazine, Newsmax and Town Hall. His special investigation into a politically charged John Doe probe, “Wisconsin’s Secret War,” was the basis of a 2014 documentary on Glenn Beck’s TheBlaze. Kittle has made several appearances on Fox News, including “On the Record with Greta Van Susteren.

Gee, no bias there towards his stealth employer, O’Keefe.

And this:

Chisholm declines to launch probe of his handling of Doe
By Jason Stein of the [Milwaukee, Wisc.] Journal Sentinel
Oct. 24, 2014

Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm has sharply denied a request from a potential target of an investigation that Chisholm himself be investigated. …

Last month, Eric O’Keefe, a conservative activist and director of the Wisconsin Club for Growth, asked that Chisholm appoint a special prosecutor to look into Chisholm’s secret probe of alleged campaign finance allegations during the 2011 and 2012 recall campaigns. Specifically, Chisholm was looking at whether Gov. Scott Walker’s campaign had improperly coordinated with outside conservative groups such as the Club for Growth.

 

And the fake “watchdog” site?

Report: No district attorney will investigate District Attorney John Chisholm
By M.D. Kittle  /   October 23, 2014 
Wisconsin Reporter

MADISON, Wis. — Of the 48 Wisconsin district attorneys asked to investigate allegations that Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm abused his power in launching a secret investigation into conservatives, not one is available to take on the job, according to a new report by Dodge County District Attorney Kurt F. Klomberg.

[…]

“How is it possible that John Chisholm has the manpower to carry out a years-long abusive investigation targeting his political opponents, but no other law enforcement agency in the state has the capacity to investigate Chisholm?” asked Chris Kliesmet, president of Milwaukee-based Citizens for Responsible Government, the group thatasked Klomberg to investigate.

I have covered Kliesmet at length. But you might want to take a look at this:

• So Which One Is Shemp?

Which is about how the Howie Rich gang attempted to deflect attention from their stealth funding in several states by using ANOTHER phony “foundation” run by crony Paul Jacob and run by (according to her OWN admission*) O’Keefe’s wife!  They brought in Wisconsin recall specialist Chris Kliesmet to FOIA bomb state after state (Nebraska and Oregon spring to mind) to pretend that state UNION employees were OPPOSING their stealth campaign to rewrite state laws.

It didn’t work.

[* See “Anatomy of a Smear” for more details. And here’s part of her admission (pretending that I hadn’t ferreted her out, but that everything was on the up and up and they were VICTIMS of bad old government and horrible bloggers:

Leslie Graves is the national director of G-TAP. She shares about how she became interested in the G-TAP project: I live near Spring Green, Wisconsin, with my husband Eric O’Keefe. Eric has been involved for many years with the term limits and school choice movements, recently serving as Chair of the Executive Committee of Americans for Limited Government. My old friend Paul Jacob of Citizens in Charge has helped with hundreds of statewide petition drives over the last 25 years.

[…]

As Paul and I talked, I remembered a presentation I’d heard earlier in the year featuring Chris Kleismet of Citizens for Responsible Government. 

[…]

Paul and I got together with Chris in mid-August to learn more about his database management system. …

At least that’s the massaged fairy tale. But you notice how they’re all thick as thieves. AND how their names KEEP showing up in their latest shenannigans?

The G-TAP “project” was a program to intimidate state employees and keep them busy through the election (it was launched in October 2006) by flooding them with Freedom of Information requests. It failed, as state after state realized that the requests were frivolous and an intimdation tactic. They also lost nearly all of their initiatives, but then claimed nine victories in states never listed on any of their sites. They only succeeded in Arizona. Naturally.]

And take a look here:

… owned and operated by Leslie Graves, wife of then ALG Board Chair Eric O’Keefe. See:

• Part 8: America At Its Worst (i)28 July 2006
• Part 8: America At Its Worst (ii)30 July 2006

Remember what Truthout said about Eric O’Keefe?

O’Keefe helped create American Majority, a Tea Party-candidate training organization. O’Keefe has attempted to take credit for being the architect of the entire Tea Party movement

Certainly, Eric Odom, then IT Director for Sam Adams Alliance registered the first Tea Party Website the night of Santelli’s famous 2009 rant on the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and then ALL the players sponsored the “Liberty Bus Tour” the first Tea Party bus tour, until Sal Russo and his phony “Tea Party Express” cottage business took over after repainting their bus.

They weren’t Republicans Confederates THEN.
NOW, they suddenly are. Hmm.

Take a look at February 24, 2011’s “Things Go Badder With Koch™!” for more

This was back when they said “We’re not Republicans. We’re not Democrats. We are America!”

Well, the first two are true, and the third is false, but now they’re Republicans Confederates. Funny how that works.

For a list of sponsors and the incestuous ball of snakes that this all is see 2010’s “Kochs Drop Mask.“

So, to end on a happy note, here is the Order from the Appellate Court:

United States Court of Appeals
For the Seventh Circuit
Chicago, Illinois 60604
October 23, 2014

ERIC O’KEEFE AND WISCONSIN CLUB FOR GROWTH,
INC.,
Plaintiffs-Appellees,
v.
JOHN T. CHISHOLM, et al.,
Defendants-Appellants.
FRANCIS SCHMITZ,
Defendant-Appellant/Cross-Appellee.
REPORTERS COMMITTEE FOR FREEDOM OF THE
PRESS, et al.,
Intervenors-Appellants.
UNNAMED INTERVENORS NO. 1 AND NO. 2,
Intervenors-Appellees.

Order
Plaintiffs-appellees filed a petition for rehearing and rehearing en banc on
October 8, 2014. No judge in regular active service has requested a vote on the
petition for rehearing en banc, and all of the judges on the panel have voted to
deny rehearing. The petition for rehearing is thereforeDENIED.

Boop boop be doop.
========================

 Mr. Williams has a lively blog His Vorpal Sword. This is cross-posted from his blog.