Thin skinned Donald Trump does not seem to appreciate it when his words are used against him.

The above is part of the ad blitz that the pro-Hillary SuperPAC Priorities USA is putting out against Donald Trump.

As you might imagine Trump did not take kindly to hearing his words used against him.

The pathetic new hit ad against me misrepresents the final line. "You can tell them to go BLANK themselves" - was about China, NOT WOMEN!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 17, 2016

Crooked Hillary Clinton put out an ad where I am misquoted on women. Can't believe she would misrepresent the facts! My hit was on China

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 17, 2016

Amazing that Crooked Hillary can do a hit ad on me concerning women when her husband was the WORST abuser of woman in U.S. political history

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 17, 2016

Well that last tweet is quite an exaggeration.

And to be clear Trump is essentially saying that since one of the quotes does not refer to women that every single one of the statements, in his own voice by the way, should be disregarded as false?

Yeah, okay. 

Interestingly enough there is now a brand new piece of audio that came out after that ad was made that is just as disgusting:

He called Hayden himself and said, “[Zdrok] looks like a fucking third-rate hooker. Gimme a break. I never took her out. She’s full of shit. Chaunce, look, I have good taste in women. Take a look at her picture. It’s all bullshit. I never took her out … I never took her out, and based on that picture I would never take her out. She’s not even attractive, she’s not a good-looking girl… Who the hell wants a Penthouse Pet? Penthouse is gone, it’s bankrupt, it’s over.” 

Oh yeah Donald Trump can try to drag Bill Clinton into this to distract from his own misogyny, but since all of his creepy remarks seem to be captured on audio tape that is not likely to help him much.  

SuperPAC creates pro-Jeb! advertisement that uses the image of Terri Schiavo. The word you are looking for here is "disgusting."

Courtesy of the Daily Kos: 

The Right to Rise super PAC helping Jeb Bush is airing an ad in South Carolina that features a photo of Terri Schiavo, the Pinellas County woman, who died 10 years ago despite Bush's efforts to halt the removal of her feeding tube. 

The ad features a picture of Mrs. Schiavo as well as an image of what appears to be someone at the vigil outside her hospice holding a Jeb! campaign sign.

The image shows up around the 12 second mark and is accompanied by these words: 

"He's a man of deep faith who fought time and again for the right to life."

Some of you may remember the Terri Schiavo case and how she was used as a political football by the anti-choice groups and Jeb Bush.

After her death there was an autopsy which determined that the amount of damage to Schiavo's brain was massive. In the words of the Chief Examiner, the damage was "irreversible, and no amount of therapy or treatment would have regenerated the massive loss of neurons."

Here is what Michael Schiavo, the young woman's then husband, said in response to this disrespectful use of his dead wife's image: 

"It is simply disgusting that Jeb Bush and his super Pac would exploit my wife’s tragedy for his crude political gain. Shame on Jeb Bush."

You know I am going to stop assuming that these Republican politicians cannot go any lower than they already have.  Because every time I do I'm proved wrong.

The "Draft Biden" SuperPAC releases its first advertisement. I don't know how I feel about it.

Courtesy of HuffPo: 

Draft Biden, a super PAC encouraging Vice President Joe Biden to run for president, released its first advertisement on Wednesday. 

The 90-second ad, “My Redemption,” first released on the Internet, uses Biden’s own words from his commencement address at Yale this year to describe how the tragic loss of his wife and infant daughter in a 1972 car accident made him a better parent and a stronger person. Biden’s sons, Beau and Hunter, survived the fatal accident, which occurred just a few weeks after Biden’s election to his first term in the Senate. 

“The incredible bond I have with my children is the gift I’m not sure I would have had, had I not been through what I went through,” Biden intones, as we see images of his Senate swearing-in by his sons’ side in the hospital. “But by focusing on my sons I found my redemption.” 

The ad then shows images of Beau Biden, who died of brain cancer in late May at age 46.

Okay let me just admit up front that his ad bothers me.

Now it took me a bit to really understand what about it was bothering me, but now I think I know.

It's the fact that the ad seems to use the numerous tragedies in Joe Biden's life to sell him as a potential Commander-in-Chief.

That, to me, is not something which convinces me of a person's leadership abilities.

What's more it seems like an attempt to tap into the viewers emotions and elicit sympathy for Biden, which I assume is supposed to then translate into warm feelings about him as a person.

Well I have warm feelings about Joe Biden as a person, but this ad actually makes me suspicious that those feelings, which have a lot to do with Biden's authenticity and the recent passing of his son, are being manipulated for potential political gain.

And I can tell you that if true, my feelings will go from warm and fuzzy to extreme dislike in a matter of seconds.

I recognize that this is a SuperPAC, and not affiliated directly with Biden, but it might serve him well to make sure that point is understood by the public at large if he is actually considering throwing his hat into the ring. 

Is this some attempt by Jeb Bush to subliminally signal to the black community that he is with them?

Nope you're not crazy that is the hand of a black man.

Courtesy of TPM:  

Is it getting this bad? Flailing in the polls and struggling to find a rationale for his candidacy, is Jeb Bush suggesting he may be black? Judd Legum at ThinkProgress points out that the Jeb SuperPac 'Right to Rise' has just blanketed Iowa with a mailer in which Jeb's head appears to be photoshopped on to a black man's body.

You know I almost did not post this. But the more I stared at this picture the more I just could not figure out how it escaped scrutiny by those in charge of the "Right to Rise" PAC and made it onto a flier.

I mean first off Jeb Bush is one of the whitest men I have ever seen, so the hand really stands out.

And secondly his grin actually looks like he is hiding something from his audience, which kind of automatically makes you suspicious.

What's next? Will we soon see Jeb fliers with a breast pump photoshopped in the background to attract the new mother vote? Or two tickets to a Streisand concert surreptitiously placed in the pocket to garner support from the LGBT voter? Or perhaps just a look of shame on his face in order to connect with all of those millions of Americans outed by the Ashley Madison hack?

Politics, just when you think you have seen it all.

Bernie Sanders may be the dream candidate for liberals.

Courtesy of CNN:  

Bernie Sanders says he won't launch a Super PAC and doesn't want billionaires to bankroll his campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination. 

The Vermont senator who entered the 2016 race for the White House on Thursday told CNN's Wolf Blitzer in his first interview as a candidate that he'll instead look to small-dollar individual donors. 

And he lambasted the growing influence that major donors like Charles and David Koch on the right and Tom Steyer on the left now have on the political process. 

"Frankly, it is vulgar to me that we're having a war of billionaires," Sanders said. 

Asked whether he would bless a wealthy donor's support for a pro-Sanders Super PAC, he said: "No."

"Frankly it is vulgar to me that we're having a war of billionaires." 

Call me crazy but I think Bernie Sanders is trying to seduce me.

I mean he keeps whispering these sweet honeyed words into my ear, and acting all righteous and as if he were an actual honest to goodness trustworthy politician.

I swear it's enough to make me want to toss away all logic and run off with him to eventual electoral defeat.

I feel a little like those crazy college kids who threw their damp boxer shorts at Ron Paul, except for the fact that Bernie's not a crazy person.

And by the way I am far from alone.

Sander's campaign managed to raise 1.5 million in just 24 hours.

I might need to have somebody talk me down, before I end up voting for this guy in the primary.

And by the way, it might be too late for that talk.

Sarah Palin is now using her Facebook page as a platform for anti-Hillary attack ads.

That video is featured in Palin's post along with this text:

America - you ready for the real Hillary? Some of us are; join us and begin here...

In answer to that question it appears that most Americas ARE ready for Hillary. To vote for her that is.

And if that ad is any indication the people who are not ready are the anti-Hillary folks on the Right Wing.

The ad is created by the Super Pac America Rising, which was formed by Mitt Romney's former campaign manager Matt Rhoades, and according to their about page played a significant part in 2014 by attacking progressive candidates and creating misleading attack ads.

It is said to be the only PAC focused on opposition research.

Now that Hillary has officially declared it appears they are solely focused on taking her down, using soundbites and gaffes going all the way back to her days as First Lady of Arkansas. And apparently Palin is getting a little something in her kitty to help.

Much like their previous ads this one is full of misrepresentations and selective editing, which creates a false reality quite removed from, you know, actual reality.

Take for instance that James Carville quote; "There's one set of rules for the Clintons, and there's another one for everybody else."

In fact Carville was defending Hillary on Andrea Mitchell Reports against attacks from the Right Wing. His point was NOT that in fact there are different rules for the Clintons, his point was that the conservatives hold them to higher standard than anyone who shares their conservative ideology.

 So once again I have to say this is weak tea coming from the conservatives, and if they think this is going to sway any voters who recognize the devastation caused in this country by Republican Presidents, then 2016 is going to be a rude awakening indeed.

As for Sarah Palin......well she has now been reduced to a D-list former politician who will desperately attempt to link her name to anything that might get her even a smidgeon of recognition.

It might be time to trot out that sex tape Sarah. Oh you know the one I'm talking about.

Jeb Bush announces launch of new SuperPAC on Vine-like videos.

Post by Jeb Bush.

However if you "No hablo inglés" no worries because Jebbie can beg for money in two languages.

Post by Jeb Bush.

Here is more from Mediaite:  

The Right to Rise PAC “will celebrate success and risk taking, protect liberty, cherish free enterprise, strengthen our national defense, embrace the energy revolution, fix our broken and obsolete immigration system, and give all children a better future by transforming our education system through choice, high standards and accountability,” a source told Fox News. More likely it will fund Bush staffers, polling, travel, and other campaign necessities in anticipation of a crowded primary field. The move is far and away the most aggressive yet by any presumptive 2016 nominee, and may be an attempt to intimidate other candidates out of the field.

So I guess the 2016 has now officially started?

Oh joy.

Sad, but undeniably true.

We now have some of the best legislators that corporate money can buy, and we as voters allowed it to happen.

Remember folks, you don't get the America you want, you get the America you deserve.

The Koch brothers and conservative PAC's are spending millions to defeat Mark Begich in Alaska. So here come the labor unions to the rescue.

AFL-CIO President Vince Beltrami with Rachel Maddow

Courtesy of Mother Jones:

Republicans' most likely path to retaking the Senate in November requires GOPers to pick up seats in six key states: Alaska, Arkansas, Louisiana, Montana, South Dakota, and West Virginia. Of the six, Alaska—where Democratic Sen. Mark Begich is facing off against former Republican Attorney General Dan Sullivan—may be the closest race. That's why right-wing groups backed by the likes of the Koch brothers and Karl Rove are dumping millions into the state—and why Alaska unions are pulling out all the stops this year to make sure Begich, a fierce supporter of labor, carries the day. 

"This is literally the most active we've ever been in an election cycle," says Vince Beltrami, the president of the Alaska AFL-CIO, which represents nearly all unions in the state. 

Union members have been working the phones, pushing out mailings, and canvassing on behalf of Begich. Volunteers have even taken the unusual step of door-knocking in areas far outside of Alaska's urban centers, says Jerry McBeath, a professor of political science at the University of Alaska-Fairbanks. Because of the unprecedented level of campaign action this year, Beltrami says, the AFL-CIO had to rent out an extra 7,000-square-foot warehouse.

The giant push by labor this year comes not only because the race is one of the most competitive in the country and could decide which party controls the Senate. The wave of union action is also a backlash against the onslaught of money pouring into the state in support of Sullivan from the billionaire Koch brothers' dark-money group Americans for Prosperity and GOP operative Karl Rove's super-PAC, American Crossroads. The groups—which support the rollback of collective bargaining rights and back right-to-work laws, which prevent unions from compelling employees to join or pay dues to a union—are dumping money into the Alaska Senate race for the first time ever. 

"They're up here on the airwaves 24 hours a day, seven days a week, trying to tie Mark to Obama," Beltrami says. "They say things 50 times a day on the airwaves that aren't true. You gotta push back."

Don't forget these are ALASKAN union members fighting against forces outside of our state throwing truckloads of money at this election in order to elect an outsider who will jump through any flaming hoop they hold up for him.

We are fighting for our very lives up here, and this is absolutely a David and Goliath story of a local Anchorage man facing off against giants of industry willing to bury him under a mountain of campaign spending.

I know Vince though, and if this thing can be turned around with good hard work and a never say die attitude then he and his union brothers and sisters are certainly the ones to make that happen.

The organization contributing millions to fund Dan Sullivan's campaign against Senator Mark, lies about receiving donation of $300,000 from his wealthy parents.

Courtesy of The Center for Public Integrity: 

Republican super PAC American Crossroads misidentified its second-largest donor last month in paperwork filed Friday with the Federal Election Commission. 

The group, co-founded by GOP strategist Karl Rove, listed the Glenmede Trust Company as giving it $300,000 on Aug. 29, part of the $1.7 million American Crossroads raised in August.

Sadly for Karl Rove's super PAC the Glenmede Trust quickly  denied making any such contribution, and even contacted American Crossroads to have them change the paperwork.

Which they did:

Several hours later, however, American Crossroads filed an amended report to the FEC that now identifies the $300,000 as coming from Thomas and Sandra Sullivan, the parents of U.S. Senate candidate Dan Sullivan of Alaska. Lindsay confirmed the super PAC changed its report but declined additional comment.

Wait, what? But..but aren't American Crossroads like the BIGGEST donor supporting Dan Sullivan's campaign right now?

And doesn't that kind of mean that Sullivan's parents are essentially financing his campaign to the tune of $300,000 in donations?

Why yes, yes it does.

American Crossroads says it has spent more than $1.3 million in Alaska's U.S. Senate race and reportedly plans to spend $5.5 million in the race.

Must be nice, thanks to the Citizens United case, to have parents with hundreds of thousands to spend on your campaign, and deep pocketed supporters from all over the country, almost exclusively outside of Alaska, willing to donate many more millions to help you win in a state where you are a relative newcomer. 

Have I mentioned that Senator Begich's father died quite a number of years back?

Yeah he died while serving Alaskans as their last Democratic Congressman, in a very suspicious plane accident. After which the seat has been continually held by Republican Don Young, a man who could not beat Nick Begich in an actual election.

So sadly Mark Begich does not have parents with loads of money, and a SuperPAC willing to funnel it to him on their behalf.

All he has is integrity, and a desire to do the work for the people of Alaska that his father's untimely death interrupted.

More outside money being spent in Alaska than anyplace else. They are trying to buy OUR election.

Senator Mark Begich, in the GOP cross hairs.

Courtesy of The New York Times: 

A big part of being an Alaskan is harboring a suspicion of all things Lower 48. It’s an inclination that runs so deep that locals have a proper noun to describe everywhere else — Outside. 

So, naturally, there is quite a bit of alarm here over the state’s newest political distinction. Alaska has unwillingly become a giant receptacle for money from “super PACs” and other out-of-state groups fighting over control of the United States Senate. 

In no other state have so many ads about a Senate race run so far; in no place else has more money been spent to book commercial time through Election Day. More than $20 million worth of ads have been reserved so far — the bulk of the money coming from Washington-based outfits like Karl Rove’s American Crossroads, which wants to elect a Republican, and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, which is defending Senator Mark Begich, one of the most targeted first-term Democrats. 

Five months before the November election, that sum would be extraordinary in any state. It is all the more staggering considering it will be spent to reach only about 490,000 registered voters.

Personally I would not categorize the spending by  Democratic Senatorial Campaign in the same way I would the Crossroads and Koc brother money.

After all the Democrats are spending in response to the PAC money flooding out airwaves and to protect one of their own.

I this this reporter, Jeremy Peters, has really hit it on the head when he describes the suspicion with which Alaskans view outside money and influence.

Simply put, we don;t like that shit!

We may be quirky and a little crazy, but we are far more likely to trust a whack-a-doodle from Seward than some uptight suit from the lower 48.

I think that all Begich has to do is continue reminding people Dan Sullivan's ties to outside influences, and remind Alaskans of his similarities to our most famous carpetbagger John Lindauer and he should have little trouble hanging onto his seat.

Well it looks like SarahPAC is not the only one.

Courtesy of the Washington Post:  

A Washington Post analysis found that some of the top national tea party groups engaged in this year’s midterm elections have put just a tiny fraction of their money directly into boosting the candidates they’ve endorsed. 

The practice is not unusual in the freewheeling world of big-money political groups, but it runs counter to the ethos of the tea party movement, which sprouted five years ago amid anger on the right over wasteful government spending. And it contrasts with the urgent appeals tea party groups have made to their base of small donors, many of whom repeatedly contribute after being promised that their money will help elect conservative politicians. 

Out of the $37.5 million spent so far by the PACs of six major tea party organizations, less than $7 million has been devoted to directly helping candidates, according to the analysis, which was based on campaign finance data provided by the Sunlight Foundation. 

The dearth of election spending has left many favored tea party candidates exposed before a series of pivotal GOP primaries next month in North Carolina, Nebraska, Idaho and Kentucky. 

So then the question becomes, if they are not spending the money on the candidates, then just were ARE they spending the money?

Roughly half of the money — nearly $18 million — has gone to pay for fundraising and direct mail, largely provided by Washington-area firms. Meanwhile, tea party leaders and their family members have been paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in consulting fees, while their groups have doled out large sums for airfare, a retirement plan and even interior decorating.

What, no postage?

Of course we have reported fairly extensively on SarahPAC spending, but isn't it interesting to find that essentially Palin's PAC is following the same pattern as all of the others?

And of course this kind of money laundering will continue right up until the paint chip eaters who send money to these criminals wise up.

So essentially it will never end.

Well, until they all die off of course,

SuperPAC using Republican candidate's ties to Koch brothers in attack ad in West Virginia. Ooh, I like this!

Courtesy of The Hill:

House Majority PAC is launching a new ad hitting Rep. Nick Rahall’s (D-W.Va.) Republican opponent for his support from the billionaire Koch brothers. 

The ad, from a super-PAC working to elect Democrats to the House, charges that Charles and David Koch have spent more than $1 million to elect state Sen. Evan Jenkins, and outlines a series of negative impacts from Koch spending and influence in West Virginia. 

“The Koch brothers wouldn’t be billionaires if they didn’t get what they paid for,” a narrator says in the ad. “In Washington, Evan Jenkins won’t work for us.” 

I think it is a great idea to use ties to the Koch brothers, against the candidates that they are supporting.

If you can't outspend them then at least make that money so tainted that the smell of it sticks to their chosen candidate and makes him unelectable.

And that one tag line is the kicker. The Koch brothers wouldn’t be billionaires if they didn’t get what they paid for." THAT is the gospel.

After the debut of her new show non-political show, brought to you by the makers of green screen, Sarah Palin returns to what she knows best, endorsing loser candidates and bitching about liberals.

Yesterday on Facebook Palin endorsed Pete Ricketts and had her ghostwriter write up a post just chock full of cookie cutter conservative jargon and anti-liberal vitriol.

Here is a taste:

While Pete’s opponents in this race have made a career for themselves as politicians, bureaucrats, or lobbyists, Pete spent his career in the private sector helping grow his family’s successful business from the bottom up. I believe in teaching kids to never fear success and in fact to look to those who’ve ethically earned their success and emulate their work ethic! 

Yeah I have no idea what all of that blabber meant, but it is interesting to note that Ricketts actually TRIED to be one of those career politicians that Palin vilified up above back in 2006, when he ran against Democrat Ben Nelson for his Senate seat.

He failed in that endeavor, after spending over eleven million dollars of his own money, and so he is back and newly reborn as a Tea Party conservative.

While giving Ricketts his political reach around Palin also decided to go on the attack against the evil liberals.

The alternative is woeful dependency on an inevitable sinking ship I call “Liberal Lunacy.”

Yes of course, WE are the lunatics.

The rest of the post is overflowing with the usual hackneyed Palin-aprops. Such as "common sense conservative," "fearless patriot," and of course, "servant's heart."

Palin also warns about the "recycled old discredited attacks" which I believe refers to this one about his position on amnesty leveled at him by Charlie Janssen, who is running for the same nomination.

Palin goes onto say this:

Pete has the business acumen, the moral integrity, and the conservative common sense to lead Nebraska into a prosperous future. 

The problem is that she is describing the wrong Ricketts family member. In fact it is his father who seems to have the business acumen, as evidenced by the fact that it he who owns TDAmeritrade, the company for whom his son Pete serves as the CEO.

In fact it appears that the father, Joe Ricketts, is the REAL political heavyweight.

It was the senior Ricketts who started the super PAC "Taxpayers Against Earmarks," now known as "Ending Spending," and who spent 10 million dollars of his own money attempting to prove that President Obama was a leftist radical who was heavily influenced by the Reverend Wright.

This from May 2012, in the New York Times:  

“The world is about to see Jeremiah Wright and understand his influence on Barack Obama for the first time in a big, attention-arresting way,” says the proposal, which was overseen by Fred Davis and commissioned by Joe Ricketts, the founder of the brokerage firm TD Ameritrade. Mr. Ricketts is increasingly putting his fortune to work in conservative politics.

Oh yeah, this explains why Palin is so enthusiastic about the son.

Palin at Friday morning Ricketts fundraiser.

These are her kind of people. Completely out of their fucking minds!

Justice Department subpoenas records in investigation of Michele Bachmann. Well it's about time.

"Uh oh! I think I;m fucked."

Courtesy of the Star Tribune: 

In the waning days of U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann’s presidential campaign, her husband, Marcus Bachmann, allegedly wrote an e-mail describing his efforts to raise much-needed funds through an outside “super PAC.” 

That e-mail is now in the hands of the U.S. Justice Department, which has subpoenaed records from the National Fiscal Conservative (NFC) Political Action Committee as part of a federal grand jury investigation into potentially illegal coordination between the PAC and Bachmann’s campaign. 

The grand jury subpoena, first reported in the New York Times, represents a major escalation in the multiple federal and state inquiries that rose from alleged election law violations brought forward last January by campaign whistleblower Peter Waldron. 

“It’s a pivot point,” said Waldron, a Florida minister and longtime Republican operative who says he grew disillusioned with the ethical practices of the campaign. 

Officials representing Bachmann and the NFC PAC did not respond to requests for comment Friday. Bachmann announced in May that she would not seek a fifth term in Congress next year.

Forced out of office because of a Federal investigation. Hmm, where have I seen a similar case?

Personally I hope this is just the beginning. I think that there are a LOT of these Teabagger types who could use a little Federal scrutiny.

Gabby Giffords SuperPAC to fight for gun control raises over six million dollars!

Courtesy of HuffPo:  

The super PAC created by former Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and her husband, former NASA astronaut Mark Kelly, to provide a counter-weight to the politically powerful National Rifle Association raised $6.5 million in its first six months of operation, according to a Federal Election Commission report filed Wednesday. 

Unlike many other super PACs, Americans for Responsible Solutions received broad support from small and medium-sized donors. Tens of thousands of small donors giving less than $200 combined for a total $3.2 million to Giffords' group, and thousands of medium-sized donors giving under $1,000 accounted for slightly more than $1 million.

I am proud to say that even though I have been trying to avoid giving anymore money to charities and causes, that I was more than willing to send my $100 to Gabby. So yes my donation made up a very small part of this rather incredible sum.

And isn't it nice to see that people are so willing to give to such a positive and important political cause? Especially when you consider how poorly a certain Little Miss Blood Libel did the other day with HER PAC.

Not to mention that the NRA, in the first six months of 2013, has only raised a little of 7 million themselves.

God I love Karma!  (Not that I believe in it, but you know.)

Vote Sarah Palin 2016 SuperPAC receives mysterious donation of 5 million UK pounds sterling. WTF? Update!

"For Me???"

Somebody sent me a link to this tweet earlier today.

Vote Sarah Palin 2016 superPAC strangely says it has received a donation of 5 million UK pounds sterling. (?!) query.nictusa.com/cgi-bin/dcdev/…
— Luke Rosiak (@lukerosiak) March 2, 2013

So I figured I would follow the link and see where it led.

It led here:  

Formal notification of receipt to Vote Sarah Palin USA President 2016 a sum of five million UK pound sterling (at exchange rate of equivalent in USA dollars of November 5 2012). The sum of five million UK pound sterling is equivalent value of asset held (which has a commercial market value of ?5 million). No expenditure was incurred in November 6 2012 USA presidential election campaign. This is because Sarah Palin was not an official USA presidential candidate on November 6 2012. This is the only filing that i have to disclose to FEC relating to 2012 campaign activity relating to USA presidential election 2012.

I quite literally have NO idea what this is. I checked and they do not seem to have any presence whatsoever on the internet.

Anybody have any ideas?

By the way 5 million UK pounds sterling works out to approximately $1,501,700.00 American.(Oops, should not have relied on a Google search, it turns out to be more along of the lines of $7,508,500.00)

I have so many questions.

Update: It looks like some small number of those questions have been answered. Well almost at least.

This is the profile of the person,zaccheus gilpin, identified as the treasurer of VOTE SARAH PALIN US PRESIDENT 2016.

And this was found in a Wall Street Journal article titled Brussels' Wacky Lobbyists:

Then, there’s Zaccheus Gilpin, who is based in the UK and whose registration suggests that he has pledged ₤5 million to the Conservative Party, “payable soon.” We have been unable to track Mr. Gilpin down, although a Google profile of someone with the same name suggests he’s a male model in his early 40s looking for worldwide assignments, who also claims to be an excellent kisser.

So my question is who is this person trying to mess with? The media, us. or Sarah Palin?

P.S. Thanks for all the digging you guys did on this story. I literally had just a few minutes to post it before having to leave for an appointment and did not have enough to time to do any thorough investigating myself. But you guys are the best so I knew you would get to the bottom of it.

Alaska's Lisa Murkowski teams up with Democratic Senator to write opinion piece promising to take on SuperPACs. Oookay, what's the catch?

Courtesy of Alaska Dispatch:  

U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, is teaming with Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., to clean up the indulgent and secretive excesses of so-called political Super PACs. She's pledged to take on the project early in the 113th Congress, and co-authored with Wyden an opinion piece on the subject published in the Washington Post. 

In their piece for the Post, released late Thursday to reporters, Murkowski and Wyden explain: 

"This influx of unregulated political cash stemming from the Supreme Court's 2010 Citizens United decision spawned a particularly vitriolic political cycle. Groups on both sides dumped some $6 billion into tearing down candidates for public office. The anonymity of much of this spending encourages ads that lower the level of political discourse and makes it harder, not easier, for Americans to make informed decisions.” 

However before you start thinking to yourself, "Finally a Republican who is ready to break ranks and think for herself, remember this:

Murkowski has herself benefited greatly from a Super PAC. Back in 2010, when independent expenditure groups got the green light to go hog wild, she was in a heated battle to keep her Senate seat from going to Alaska's tea party-backed challenger, Joe Miller. Miller won the primary, but Murkowski chose to stay in the race and mount a write-in campaign. With the help of a Super PAC called Alaskans Standing Together, largely funded by Alaska Native corporations reliant on federal money streams, Murkowski won re-election.

I am unable to put my suspicious nature concerning Lisa Murkowski aside (Remember she is the Senator who allowed energy lobbyists to write her a bill for her and also attempted to hamstring the EPA's ability to regulate greenhouse gases.), however I will say that she has broken ranks with the Republicans before, and I would expect that she will do so again as she may have one of the most primary proof Senate seats in the country.

After her trouncing of Joe Miller's vaguely bearded ass in 2010, I would be stunned if anybody from the right wanted to challenge her nomination again. And as for the Democrats, as much as it pains me to say, there just isn't anybody that I believe can really give her a run for her money.

So essentially Murkowski is free to finally vote her conscience. I don't expect that her conscience. will line up too well with most liberal ideals, but I also don't see her going all Teabagger on us either.

The only possible fly in Murkowski's political ointment is the fact that the Joe Miller crowd is now running the Alaska Republican Party.

As you know our elections are not exactly democratic so the people in charge of the vote tally (The Republicans) is also in charge of the outcome of our elections. However it would be an incredibly risky move for the Miller teabaggers to try and steal an election from Murkowski, who would have the support of the old Republican guard plus many Independents, not to mention more than a handful of liberals whose respect she earned by kicking Miller's ass.

Oh well, time will tell, but my money is still on the fact that Murkowski is, for all intents and purposes, essentially bullet proof. Which means that she could conceivably become one of the most influential members of the Senate.

"Romnopoly." Another great pro-Obama ad.

Another great ad from American Bridge PAC.

See? We can play the SuperPAC game as well.

Conservative blogger: “OMG. This might just be the moment Mitt Romney lost the election. Wow,"

Some of you might have seen the rather devastating ad from a pro-Obama SuperPAC below, but I doubt you could have predicted that it would so effectively lay a trap for the Romney campaign.

Looking for a response, Fox News invited Romney spokesperson Andrea Saul on the air to discuss the campaign's rebuttal. This, according to the Washington Post, was the result:  

Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul, responding to a harsh new super PAC ad featuring a man who blames Bain Capital for his uninsured wife’s death, broke new ground for the campaign by praising Romney’s health insurance mandate. 

“To that point, if people had been in Massachusetts, under Gov. Romney’s health care plan, they would have had health care,” Saul said on Fox News. “There are a lot of people losing their jobs and losing their health care in President Obama’s economy.” (These comments are around the 2-minute mark in the video above.) 

Similarly, at an event in Iowa today, Romney seemed to suggest his bill qualifies him to tackle reforming Obama’s bill: “We’ve got to do some reforms in health care, and I have some experience doing that as you know, and I know how to make a better setting than the one we have in health care.” 

It’s a very novel strategy. And it’s fraught with danger. 

Obama’s health-care law remains perhaps the biggest arrow in the GOP’s 2012 election quiver, because it so motivates the GOP base against the president. Romney has been criticized for enacting a very similar law in Massachusetts. He was largely able to finesse the issue in the primary season and gather conservatives to his side for the general election. But there remain some concerns that his own health-care law may make it harder for him to prosecute the case against Obama’s law. 

Top conservatives, including radio host Rush Limbaugh, were quick to criticize the move. 

“Andrea Saul’s appearance on Fox was a potential gold mine for Obama supporters,” Limbaugh said. “They can say, ‘Romneycare was the basis for our health care.’” 

RedState.com editor Erick Erickson agreed: “OMG. This might just be the moment Mitt Romney lost the election. Wow,” he tweeted . He added on his blog that this might be the moment of Romney’s “Read My Lips” betrayal of his right-wing supporters.

You want to hear something funny? I actually decided NOT to post the ad on this blog when it first came out because I kind of thought it was a stretch laying the blame at Romney's feet for the death of that man's wife.  (Which I still do by the way.)

However if their response to this ad has the kind of devastating effect on the Romney campaign that the conservatives seem to fear that it might, then the ad might go down in history as the trigger for a response that ultimately doomed Mittens presidential aspirations for good.

Shows what I know.