Broken Borders: Broken Promises (Simcox-Minuteman)

ABC 15 Investigators ^ | 4/27/2006 | Staff

[Anti-Bubba182]

Americans are donating thousands of dollars to support Minutemen patrolling the border. But you may be surprised where your money is NOT going in this 4-month investigation.

Video (Requires Real Player)

[catholicfreeper]

I know I need to figure out how you save the picture of the page itself

[Texasforever]

If you have MS front page just download the thread to that.

[onyx]

Excellent!
===placemark===
I am too tired to read it tonight.

[nopardons]

bttt

[nopardons]

I just read some of that and holy cow, no wonder so many scam artists get away with blue murder.

[catholicfreeper]

Also you should look at the Tanton memos. They have been around slowly gaining power. They by the way were responsible for defeating a Republican Senator Spencer Abraham on 2000. Of course the next year when Jeffords defected we lost control of the Senate for all purposes. It is incredible. Their staffers are woking in the immigration reform cacus in the HOuse. It is horrible.

[nopardons]

Yes and seeing as how I have NO idea how to do any of that kind of stuff, I am the wrong person to give advice about it.

[catholicfreeper]

I read somewhere though that this organization can't advocate for a federal canidiate. Didn't they get involved in the Cannon race or was that a pac. Also, from what you are seeing can they say that they are a 501(4)(c) while they are awaiting official approval. Or they can act at all as a 501 4 c till they get it?

[pollyannaish]

Thank you. Will look further into this tomorrow.

[pollyannaish]

Thanks, I will.

You know, I feel rather silly now. When I did all of my research into the border issue...I was actually looking for reasonable solutions to the problem. How naive can I be. : P

[Texasforever]

At this point I'm not sure. If they had been collecting donations base on them being Tax deductible then I could see that as a real problem. That now does not appear to be the case. I don't think they were using this as the vehicle to help in the Cannon race unless it is shown that the used money to "lobby" without public notification. However, when you read the earlier post about the activities a 501c4 is allowed to do under the guise of 'Social Welfare" it is clear that using tax exempt funds" to build a fence for an individual rancher is a clear violation. The other question is if the Rancher is now required to pay taxes on the value of the fence and if he was notified by Simcox of that fact.

[catholicfreeper]

I agree. I am very much against what has been called campaign finance reform because it limits free speech. But there is a difference between that and this. I mena this is ridicolous all these different groups and caging companies and consultants and it is so confusing it takes30 people a week to figure it out who is behind all this stuff. This isnt politcs this is a money making scam but regardless it should be more transparent what is going on.
Heck, I never knew how Keyes could be so successful always losing campaigns. I always thought wow how does he pay his bills how does he live. Boy was I naive

[nopardons]

The facts and the light of day are both necessary tools for those of us who don't take kindly to fraud and con-men.

That's why research is much needed and threads containing these facts, so important to FR.

[catholicfreeper]

I swear Simcox had a pac too that was involved in that race. I have to go look real quick. Of course he better hope no money went from this organization to the pac is he had one

[Texasforever]

Where this is going to get dicey for them is if donated funds are being shared amongst the various laundry houses. If the are caught funneling taxable funds into tax exempt 501cs it will be found out in short order. I think that may be why they have been so over the top in blaming "political enemies".

[catholicfreeper]

That is true. You know the Supreme Court nominations are a good example of this. Remember how some voices on the left were demanding a bloodbath. I often wonder who is pushing who. Were those voices on the left that wanted a fight just Dem associated political consultants, poltical marketing firms, direct mail, etc that wanted to make a buck on it all.
Are we seeing the same thing on the right here? I remember how some conservative groups and organizations went ballistic over the gang of 14. Was that because these same groups are connected to money making operation that would have thrived off big fights over those nomination battles and made a good bit of coin to boot but were deprived of that?

It is like who is driving what. I think little of this on the left or the right nowadays is about "public policy"

[catholicfreeper]

I suspect they are able to launder it out to friends that help promote their cause. It is all very incest like. BUt my question is this. But I think at a point there must be some linit on the amount of funds that can go to "promotion" Perhaps not? BUt if this was fraud(the fence), I don't see how this isnt mail fraud and in fact COnspiracy. THere are just too many people interconnected not to know what is going on

[nopardons]

Whooooooooooooaaa there; slow down a bit, before I have to tell you how silly your tinfoil hat looks. :-)

There are con-men and frauds and scams and all kinds of "stuff" that flies under the radar; however, there really are far, far, FAR fewer conspiracies out there, than tinfoilers like to think.

Sure a lot of groups are incestruestly intertwined; that doesn't make it that everyone and everything is.

Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. :-)

[pollyannaish]

Was that because these same groups are connected to money making operation that would have thrived off big fights

IMO, yes. Government is big business. And so is politics. That is not going to change because money follows power and vice versa. Dollar limits via convoluted laws, because it simply makes the money easier to hide. We need financial transparency: who is paying for what from whom.

[Texasforever]

They have pretty much locked themselves into building the Israeli fence. That is the ONLY activity they say they are soliciting funds for. If they use the cop-out that either the government or the ranchers will not allow that fence then they are very exposed if they do not make a good faith effort to refund the surplus to donors that demand it. I think they are already up the creek since most of those funds have already been spent on non fence activities.