Today is "527" Awareness Day

In honor of the date, here is why it is important to know what a 527 group is. According to OpenSecrets.org a 527 is:

A tax-exempt group organized under section 527 of the Internal Revenue Code to raise money for political activities including voter mobilization efforts, issue advocacy and the like. Currently, the FEC only requires a 527 group to file regular disclosure reports if it is a political party or political action committee (PAC) that engages in either activities expressly advocating the election or defeat of a federal candidate, or in electioneering communications. Otherwise, it must file either with the government of the state in which it is located or the Internal Revenue Service. Many 527s run by special interest groups raise unlimited "soft money," which they use for voter mobilization and certain types of issue advocacy, but not for efforts that expressly advocate the election or defeat of a federal candidate or amount to electioneering communications.

The largest 527 is the Service Employees International Union, which dwarfs other 527s. 527s range in size from massive to very small and targeted towards certain local issues, such as "Better Libraries for Palo Alto." Because 527 organizations do not spend their money directly on a candidate and cannot advocate the election or defeat of any candidate for federal elective office they are outside of the regulation by the Federal Election Commission.


The following chart shows how important 527s are in any election cycle:



The Federal Election Commission revealed numerous instances where 527s were used illegally in the 2004 Presidential Election. As we enter the 2008 Presidential Election cycle, the FEC currently has 5 vacant seats and the Bush Administration has been scrambling to find anyone who is can be confirmed by the Senate, recently being forced to withdraw Hans von Spakovsky from consideration.

It is very likely a deliberate move to keep a regulatory body from doing its job during a contentious election cycle. Without the FEC being fully staffed in order to do its job, there is a strong possibility that multiple 527s could break the law this year and get away with it.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) have been working this year to highlight what the implications of having unregulated 527s will be in this election election cycle.

Having a dysfunctional FEC is directly to the benefit of Senator John McCain's campaign:

A federal district court judge Wednesday threw out, for now, a Democratic National Committee lawsuit to force the FEC to investigate last year's withdrawal of a request by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., for federal matching funds to support his presidential campaign.

The FEC has lacked a quorum to rule on whether McCain gave up his right to withdraw from the public campaign finance program by accepting a loan tied to receipt of matching funds. The DNC lawsuit sought to open the door for the party committee to sue the McCain campaign directly to force it to stop spending or face hefty fines.

Democrats had hoped the court would determine that the FEC, which has just two commissioners due to a political impasse in the Senate, cannot act on McCain's request.

But U.S. District Judge John Bates dismissed the suit because the DNC did not show cause to ignore a law giving the FEC 120 days to act before seeking action in court.

The DNC can file again in late June, which a spokeswoman said the party will do.

CREW has formed "Fix the FEC" and is attempting to highlight what is wrong with the FEC:

...Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) launched a new website, FixtheFEC.org, designed to change that. FixtheFEC.org was created to prompt Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) to allow for a vote on federal election commissioners that can get the FEC back to policing federal elections business. Currently, the FEC is unable to perform its function, to administer and enforce campaign finance laws.

Enjoy 527 Awareness Day, a completely fictitious day made up just this morning.

White House visitors logs are public records

A Federal Judge on Monday dealt a blow to the pathologically-secretive Bush administration and ruled that the visitors logs created and maintained by the Secret Service are public records. Turns out that the people have a right to know who is dropping by to call on the president and vice president. Those records have traditionally been reviewed by the media and watchdog organizations to keep tabs on who is bending the president's ear. Leaders of the so-called "Christian right" like Gary Bauer, James Dobson and Jerry Falwell were among the visitors the judge ordered be revealed yesterday.

The case stemmed from the Abramoff corruption scandal. Recall that aWol tried to deny he knew the super-lobbyist; then moved to classify the records that would show how many visits Jack A. had paid to the peoples house.

To that end, the current cabal tried to float the ludicrous notion that the visitors logs were "presidential records" and thus are not available under the Freedom of Information Act.

U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth rejected this argument, saying the records qualify as "agency records" subject to disclosure. He also rejected the claim that the records should be kept secret to preserve the confidentiality of presidential and vice presidential deliberations, noting that even a Cheney aide testified that the purpose of the visits is not apparent from the documents.

"Knowledge of these visitors would not disclose presidential communications or shine a light on the President's or Vice President's policy deliberations," Lamberth wrote in his opinion.

Melanie Sloan, Executive Director for CREW (Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington) issued the following statement: "CREW is pleased that the judge saw through the White House's transparent attempts to hide public documents from the American people. We look forward to sharing the documents we obtain through this lawsuit."

The White House, meantime, isn't ready to comply. In a 'circling the wagons' email message sent out right after the ruling, Tony Fratto predictably wrote "We are reviewing the decisions by the U.S. District Court in the cases and will discuss our options with counsel. As these issues remain in litigation, we will not comment further at this time."

It is likely that the White House will appeal the ruling. The grounds on which they will appeal won't likely move the ball down the field, but it will serve to run some time off the clock. And isn't that the likely legacy of this administration? Limping to the finish and running out the clock?

Yeah, You MIGHT Want to Follow the Law

Noted with incredulity:

Judge to White House: Hold E-Mails
By PETE YOST
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge Monday ordered the White House to preserve copies of all its e-mails, a move that Bush administration lawyers had argued strongly against.

U.S. District Judge Henry Kennedy directed the Executive Office of the President to safeguard the material in response to two lawsuits that seek to determine whether the White House has destroyed e-mails in violation of federal law.

In response, the White House said it has been taking steps to preserve copies of all e-mails and will continue to do so. The administration is seeking dismissal of the lawsuits brought by two private groups, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington and the National Security Archive.

The organizations allege the disappearance of 5 million White House e-mails. The court order issued by Kennedy, an appointee of President Clinton, is directed at maintaining backup tapes which contain copies of White House e-mails.

The Federal Records Act details strict standards prohibiting the destruction of government documents including electronic messages, unless first approved by the archivist of the United States.

[snip]

The judge's order "should stop any future destruction of e-mails, but the White House stopped archiving its e-mail in 2003 and we don't know if some backup tapes for those e-mails were already taped over before we went to court. It's a mystery," said Meredith Fuchs, a lawyer for the National Security Archive.

Uh, no. It's not a mystery. And if you want to know what the Republicans really think about missing E-mails, just wait until a Democrat says they have a missing E-mail. Why, the foundations of the Republic will likely be shaken to the core and a black cloud of distrust will descend upon America if, for example, President Obama can't locate the archived copy of the joke E-mail his cousin Doug sent him in 1999.

And, better yet--did anyone think the include the Office of the Vice President in that order? Or is he going to claim electronic franking privileges, based on the fact that he's in the legislative branch, at least partway?

The law doesn't apply to these people. The rule of law doesn't apply to these people. Doing what's right doesn't matter to these people.

If there were five million E-mails that detailed how great and wonderful of a job these people were doing, do you really think they would have disappeared? Do you really think that if there was no there there, and that these were mundane, routine E-mails, that they would have disappeared? I wonder why a Federal judge has to tell the White House to obey the law. Is it because there's simply no chance whatsoever that these people have the common decency to obey the law? If so, then why the fuck should anyone accept anything they say? Just once, I'd like to hear a reporter say, "yeah--bullshit. What's really going on? Nothing you're saying could even remotely be true."

I know I've agitated for better Democrats, but a functioning press would also help.

CREW Calls for Fitzgerald to Reopen Plame Investigation

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Government is calling on Patrick Fitzgerald to reopen his investigation into the political outing of covert CIA asset Valerie Plame-Wilson after her husband wrote a New York Times Op-Ed questioning the veracity of the Bush administration and their reasons for going to war in Iraq.

From Raw Story:

"It looks like Karl Rove may well have destroyed evidence that implicated him in the White House's orchestrated efforts to leak Valerie Plame Wilson's covert identity to the press in retaliation against her husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson," said Melanie Sloan, CREW's executive director.

In light of the missing emails and what they might contain, Sloan urges that Fitzgerald "should immediately reopen his investigation into whether Rove took part in the leak as well as whether he obstructed justice in the ensuing leak investigation."

When the Libby trial concluded, Mr. Fitzgerald was asked if he planned further investigations into the Plame matter. "If new information comes to light, of course we'll do that." He replied at the time.

Well Mr. Fitzgerald, I do believe that this qualifies as new information coming to light.