Blackwell, Indian Gambling, Regnery Publishing, Abe Fortas, and Pat Sajak?

[drm604]

Okay, I admit that the subject line may be a little misleading. But it's all here.
This is basically a continuation of my efforts in this other thread. Since that thread has basically fallen off the page I'm starting a new one. Check it out if you haven't yet, but it's probably best to reply in this thread rather than continuing that one. I want to thank lala_rawraw for her suggestions as to what directions my search should take.
I'll start with one intriguing but inconclusive find regarding Ohio SOS Ken Blackwell (See the previous thread for more info). While surfing through the IP addresses owned by New Media Communications I discovered, at IP 68.152.85.32, the domain signohio.com. The whois for signohio.com shows the registrant for that domain as "Ohioans For Blackwell". Signohio.com is a website for something called "Stop Increased Gambling Now". The page is broken (it shows a SQL Server error at the bottom) because it's apparently a forgotten remnant of a 2002 effort against the expansion of gambling in Ohio. This article gives some details. What's interesting is that it involves Indian gambling (google Abramoff and gambling if you're not up on this subject). I can't find any connection between the tribe mentioned in the article, the Eastern Shawnee, and Abramoff or DeLay but it is intriguing.

Moving on to something different, I took a direction hinted at by lala_rawraw in the previous thread. Looking at her map I decided to look into Regnery Publishing the publisher of "Unfit For Command". A whois of regnery.com shows that the registrant is Eagle Publishing another right wing publisher. I did a google search of the phone number for Eagle Publishing and found that it shares an address and phone number with 6 other organizations, including Regnery. It turns out that they are all "subsidiaries" (probably shells) of Eagle. A list of Eagle's management shows a number of names that are worth following up on. There's one really oddball one that you'll see if you scroll to the bottom of the page... Pat Sajack! :wow: Yes, it's the Pat Sajack from "Wheel of Fortune"; this one really blew me away. I have no idea if it's relevant to anything but geeze, Pat Sajak is a director of a wingnut publishing house?

Going back to lala's map you'll see that Regnery is a client of Creative Response Concepts and that another of CRC's clients is "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth". If you look at the whois for CRC you'll see that their IP address is 24.248.166.81 and their administrative contact is at specialsystems.net a software and web hosting company. Another company hosted by Special Systems is Strategic Media Services Which has the same IP address as CRC. Their website shows a "Website Under Construction" image but does give a phone number. (The phone number, oddly enough, was, at one time, the phone number of Abe Fortas' old law firm. Abe Fortas was a Supreme Court Associate Justice in the '60s who resigned due to a financial scandal. Weird.)
But here's the kicker - Strategic Media Services did business with, and received a lot of money from the Republican Party, and the National Republican Congressonal Committee. Searching OpenSecrets.org I can't find any record of any Democratic organization doing business with them. Now this doesn't prove a connection between CRC and SMS but it's certainly suggestive. We need to see if we can find any links between these two companies.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

1. Yeah, Pat Sajack is an extreme wingnut.

Go to his website, www.patsajak.com

[drm604]

2. I just went there

and I see what you mean. Who knew? I always liked the guy! Anyway, he isn't really relevant to what I'm discussing so I hope this doesn't get hijacked into a Pat Sajak thread. I think the Strategic Media Services thing is the most important part.

[lala_rawraw]

3. In other words...

You are explaining a map which better explains itself. What you need to do is pick a thread, remember? :D

[drm604]

4. I did.

Did you read the whole post? Did you see the bit about Strategic Media Services?

[lala_rawraw]

5. ah huh

Did you get my PM?

[FreedomAngel82]

6. Lots of good information here!

I'm glad you're still following this.

[murielkane]

7. I've just been catching up on the earlier threads

And the parts I found most interesting were about the black churches and Ken Blackwell. That got me searching my saved files, and I came up with something from Wayne Madsen:

http://www.insider-magazine.com/ChristianMafia.htm

Blackwell, who, as a former Deputy Undersecretary of HUD, was well versed in the art of distributing Bush political slush fund money and ensured that this was distributed far and wide in Ohio. This money is what Republican strategist Ed Rollins once called “walking around money” – money used by Republicans in New Jersey’s elections to pay off African American preachers to turn out the vote for their candidates. In Ohio, this tactic paid off in polling places in churches. Instead of turning out the vote, some local preachers, white and black, aided and abetted in suppressing the vote. One of Blackwell’s closest friends is fundamentalist preacher Ron Parsley of World Harvest Church. At the New Life fundamentalist church in the Gahanna District of Columbus, machines tallied 4258 votes for Bush when only a total of 628 votes were cast.

And also this:

http://www.freepress.org/columns/display/3/2004/983

The day after his concession, Kerry drew 3,893 votes closer to Bush when a computerized voting machine “glitch” was discovered in an Ohio precinct. A machine in ward 1B in the predominantly Republican Gahanna, Ohio, recorded 4,258 votes for George W. Bush when only 638 people cast votes at the New Life Church polling site. Buried on page A6 of the Columbus Dispatch, the story also reported that the voting machine recorded 0 votes in a race between Franklin County Commissioners Arlene Shoemaker and Paula Brooks. Franklin County Board of Elections Director Matt Damschroder told the Dispatch that the voting machine glitches were “why the results on election night are unofficial.”

The right-wing New Life Church voting glitch is interesting. Free Press reporter Marley Greiner has been tracking Blackwell’s relationship with far right-wing religious forces like Biblical America and Christian dominionist groups that want to establish theocratic religious rule in America. Blackwell was campaigning around the state with the Reverend Rod Parsley as part of a “Silent No More” tour in support of amending the Ohio Constitution to outlaw gay marriage, on the ballot as Issue One. Many mainstream commentators claim it was the widely popular Issue One amendment campaign that brought out Bush voters in record numbers in rural Ohio.

Anything new that might cast light on those connections could be very useful.

[drm604]

8. Interesting info

but you have to be careful with Wayne Madsen, he doesn't seem to have a very credible reputation. He seems to make a lot of claims with very little backing.
I'm aware of Blackwell's activities in Ohio, and I'm aware of the voting machine irregularities. I think that it's likely that there were some "religious" organizations involved, however, the fact that some of the machine "problems" occurred in churches is, to my mind, not very relevant. Lots of polling places are in churches, as well as schools, libraries, etc. so it's not to surprising that some of the problems occurred in churches. It seems to me that who was supervising a polling place is more important than where that polling place was physically located.