I’m all for voting and doing what I can to get others to vote, too. And, while I can sit here and say I don’t care who they vote for as long as they vote, I’d be straight-up lying. Of course, I want them to vote for “my guys”; why would I want them to vote for the “other guys”??? I don’t and I’m not even going to try to lie about it. But the National Right to Life Committee Educational Trust Fund (NRLC) and Focus on Families (FoF), two pro-life groups that “…joined together in an unprecedented partnership to conduct one of the largest combined and nonpartisan voter-registration campaigns ever…” don’t seem to have a problem with lying.
The quote above is from a mailer a friend received in yesterday’s mail from the “Commit 2 Vote 2012” campaign, which, according to Christian Post Politics, is a collaborative effort between six groups – the NRLC, FoF, Family Research Council, Americans United for Life, American Principles Project, and the Susan B. Anthony List Education Fund – with the intent of increasing voter turnout for November…or so they say.
Lie #1 - In an article on LifeNews.com, the NRLC stated “This project sends mailings directly to our supporters who are not yet registered to vote but whose participation in this year’s election is crucial.”
My friend is not a supporter of any of the groups associated with this mailer, and not only is she is already a registered and active voter, she’s a poll worker! Boy, did they ever miss the mark with that one…
Lie #2 – “Before the registration packet arrives in the mail, each household will receive a phone call alerting them the package will arrive.” (Christian Post Politics)
No such call ever came; had one come, she would have told them - in no uncertain terms - it wasn’t necessary to send her anything. This was purely unsolicited, unwanted mail. What’s more, it was unsolicited to an unknown person – not my friend. Which is kind of odd considering the mailer has the “Official Election Mail” logo on it, which means they had access to accurate mailing information.
Incidentally, when looking at the US Postal Services "Conditions of use", it seem that the Commit 2 Vote 2012 people may have violated federal law. Not to worry, I’ve already contacted them about it. (And when I say “them”, I mean the US Postal Service. ;)
Lie #3 - “…joined together in an unprecedented partnership to conduct one of the largest combined and nonpartisan voter-registration campaigns ever…” (Commit 2 Vote 2012 mailer).
Nonpartisan my derrière! Each and every one of the groups involved in this campaign has clear, right-wing agendas:
The National Right to Life Political Action Committee is endorsing Mitt Romney. What’s more, “would not disclose or declined to be evaluated” by the BBB Wise Giving Alliance. The Alliance says this on their page about NRLC’s refusal:
“While participation in the Alliance’s charity review efforts is voluntary, the Alliance believes that failure to participate may demonstrate a lack of commitment to transparency.”
That certainly is in keeping with the Republican way… (Read more about the BBC Wise Giving Alliance here.)
Focus on Families, though a non-profit corporation that can’t advocate any political candidates, its leader, James Dobson, was “among the Christian conservative leaders who met with and advised former President George W. Bush", and they supported both Mike Huckabee and Sarah Palin in the 2008 election. (Wikipedia). Yeah, that’s nonpartisan…
Family Research Council (founded by James Dobson) hold an annual Values Voter Summit “to hear Republican presidential hopefuls' platform - starring our very own Governor Scott Walker and Paul Ryan, along with several other Republicans from around the country. Mitt Romney, Rick Perry, Sarah Palin, Alan West... Sounds pretty Republican me, how about you?
Americans United for Life, like the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), writes model legislation for legislators to use, and tout their legislative activities on their site. Their model legislation is for such things as abortions (anti), and banning assisted suicide, human cloning and stem cell research. They also opposed the Affordable Health Care Act. Noooo, that’s not a partisan agenda…
American Principles Project is sponsoring The Palmetto Freedom Forum, where Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC) and Congressman Steve King (R-IA) will be hosting a presidential forum. Gee, you think President Obama will be there?
Like I said, Nonpartisan my derrière! They can send it (illegally?) to every Tom, Dick, and Harry in the US, but that doesn’t make them nonpartisan. They are partisan: Republican. Their records stand for themselves.
Lie #4 – The mailer provide incorrect information for where to send the completed registration forms. The pre-printed return mailer provides the address to the
State Elections Board
17 W. Main Street, Suite 130
PO Box 2973
Madison, WI 53701-2973
The SEB hasn’t existed in years and is now the Government Accountability Board, which is located at Third Floor P.O. Box 7984 | Madison, Wisconsin 53707-7984. The 17 W. Main Street address is to the Risser Justice Center, which happens to be located between where the GAB is and where the Madison Clerk’s Office is…you know, the place where voter registrations in Madison are supposed to go? Yeah…
I’m not going to beat around the bush; I’m going to just say it. These six groups and their voter registration campaign are liars and are full of feces. If they hadn’t called themselves (or this effort) nonpartisan, I might not be so PO-ed about this mailer, but when I see that they deliberately gave wrong information about where to send registration forms AND the wrong information about our state elections agency, I know they are full of it. And I hope they catch H-E-double-hockey-sticks for it!