Search your memory banks back a few years, when secrecy surrounded the Koch Summit in Vail Colorado -- Quick who was in attendance? ... trying not to be noticed?
Afterall, he was a new Governor in a critical "swing state" -- not wanting to appear blatantly partisan. Wait, too late. Rick Scott was caught red-handed, by local Colorado reporters ...
Rick Scott attends secret Koch brothers meeting in Colorado
by Dara Kam, postonpolitics.com, June 28, 2011
Florida Gov. Rick Scott attended a secret, invitation-only meeting outside Vail, Colo., hosted by conservative billionaire GOP donors David and Charles Koch, the governor’s staff confirmed today.
The meeting wasn’t on Scott’s official schedule and his spokesman Lane Wright initially refused to confirm or deny whether the first-term governor would make an appearance, saying he would not “speculate as to what he has done, or will do on his personal time.”
But, after The St. Petersburg Times reported Tuesday Scott did attend the meeting, Wright confirmed that the governor was there [...]
“The purpose of this conference is to develop support for the kind of free-market policies and initiatives that can get our country back on the path to economic prosperity and sustained job creation,” a spokeswoman for Koch Industries told The Denver Post last week.
[...]
And what news was uncovered just
this week, about the Florida Governor, still trying to feign impartiality --
as he demands of citizens of his state, that
they prove that they are citizens of his state?
Koch Bros. Help Bankroll Florida Voter Purge
by Jessica Pieklo, care2.com -- June 10, 2012
[...]
With Florida in a very ugly stand-off with the Department of Justice over Republican Gov. Rick Scott’s massive voter purge Robert Greenwald reports on how the Koch brothers are bankrolling those voter suppression efforts.
The billionaire brothers gave $100,000 donation to a Florida group called Protect Your Vote in 2010.
[...] Greenwald breaks it down:
But who could have opposed such sensible guidelines? Anyone with a vested interest in maintaining control over the political process instead of trusting the public to govern itself. Anyone, that is, who wants to preserve the illusion of public accountability while rigging results behind the scenes -- creating suppression in effect, if not in name. Could there be a more apt description of the Koch brothers’ modus operandi?
Of course it's a purge directed at only Florida Citizens from "select demographic" groups,
and with names of a certain origin, WHO must go through the extra "
Scott burden of proof" test ...
lucky them.
Apparently, in the subsidiary of Florida, only Names with one-syllable are above reproach ... Scott, Koch, Kurt ...
Enter Kurt Browning. He goes way back with the Kochs. And after starting from casual beginnings, Kurt kicked off Scott's Voter Purge operation ... as sort of his Kathleen Harris replacement.
Three Face Prosecution in Statewide Registered Voter Review
by Jim Turner, sunshinestatenews.com -- May 24, 2012
[...]
Former Secretary of State Kurt Browning said Tuesday that the state review of the voter rolls began last year as part of "a casual conversation" during a briefing about the agency to Scott shortly after the governor took office.
“He wanted to know what we as a department were doing to deal with non-U.S. citizens registering and voting,” Browning said. "He did not meet to talk about non-U.S. citizens."
The governor noted that people have to sign an oath when they sign the registration paperwork and often “people don’t tell the truth,” Browning said.
[...]
Afterall Kurt Browning HAD the right contacts on his fund-raising Rolodex, as far as Rick Scott was concerned ... some "Super-sized" Contacts, one might say.
Florida Official Behind Gov. Rick Scott’s Voter Purge Linked To $1 Billion Campaign Effort Against Obama
by Lee Fang, republicreport.org -- Jun 4 2012
[...]
Just before Browning was selected in 2011 by Scott as Secretary of State, Browning led a group called “Protect Your Vote Inc,” which was set up to oppose fair redistricting. One of the biggest checks to Browning’s organization came from the Center to Protect Patients’ Rights, which gave $100,000 in 2010. At the time of the donation, the source of the money was shrouded in secrecy. [...]
[image of CPPR' funding receipts]
But as Republic Report exclusively reported last month, the Center to Protect Patients’ Rights is part of a universe of front groups financed by David and Charles Koch, the petrochemical billionaires, as well as several other billionaires, as part of an election-influencing effort. New reports this week about the brothers’ strategy indicate that they will now use this constellation of front groups to finance $400 million of a $1 billion campaign in outside money to defeat President Obama and congressional Democrats. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Mitt Romney’s Super PAC, and several nonprofits controlled by Karl Rove, will furnish the other $600 million.
[...]
Center to Protect Patients’ Rights (CPPR) is the
Koch-connected Front Group, designed to disguise the ongoing Koch Political Enterprise, from bothersome prying eyes. And from confused, gullible voters too.
CPPR -- it's sort a Political Paypal for rightwing Billionaires. The tide goes in, the tide goes out ... who in the world can understand it?
Finally! the DOJ and ACLU are standing up for citizens right to Vote in Florida, without undue burdens, imposed by Scott, endorsed by Koch.
Not a day too soon, too. Now, if only they go after all that 503c non-profit untrackable money too. Somebody has to.
Civil rights groups join battle over Florida vote purge
[Florida's purge list "disproportionately targets Hispanics"]
by David Adams, Miami, reuters.com -- Jun 9, 2012
The illegal program to purge eligible voters uses inaccurate information to remove eligible citizens from the voter rolls," said Howard Simon, executive director of the Florida chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union.
Other groups behind the lawsuit include the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and the law firm Weil, Gotshal and Manges.
Supporters of Florida's voter purge, which has been vigorously pursued under Republican Governor Rick Scott, say it is aimed at clearing voter rolls of non-citizens. But critics call it part of long-running Republican effort to deter minorities and the poor, who tend to vote Democratic, from casting ballots.
Florida, which President Barack Obama won by 2.8 percent in 2008, is expected to be a key swing state in the November 6 presidential election.
[...]
But it might be too little too late. What with all those Scott wheels already in motion.
Rick Scott has been emboldened, apparently by his powerful friends in high places ... maybe even powerful enough to buy another Election? ($400M buys a lot of hearts and minds ...)
Florida SOS: Voter purge time is now
by MJ Lee, politico.com -- Jun 8, 2012
Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner pushed back Friday against critics of the state’s voter purge, arguing that it’s “time to act now” rather than after the fall elections.
“This is not a time to wait until after the elections. It’s time to act now to make sure that individuals that are voting are eligible to vote and our voting rolls are accurate and clean here in Florida,” Detzner said on CNN’s “Starting Point.” “We plan to do that.”
[...]
The Department of Justice has demanded to know why the state is attempting to remove the alleged noncitizens from the rolls just months before Election Day, and questioned the legality of the purge, saying states can’t remove voters from rolls less than 90 days before a federal election.
Removing noncitizens from the rolls would make the upcoming election fairer, Detzner said, adding that “537 votes in this environment today is what we’re trying to protect [...] That number was referring to the votes by which George W. Bush won Florida [...]
Florida has a
pivotal political legacy you know, and with
Scott, Koch, Kurt, and now Ken at the helm -- they aim to protect it.
Protect their razor-thin Secretary of State Election-deciding legacy.
In the GOP's world, it's all about your connections ... and the financial might they bring to their unique brand of Tea Party America ...
where citizens have the guarantee of having paying their taxes, but not the same guarantee when it comes to their Vote.
Unless of course your name, can be spoken with one traditional syllable.