Saturday, October 11, 2008

PAC Criticized by Cato


"An email being circulated by the National Republican Trust PAC is despicable and wrong," reads a posting of "The blog of the Cato Institute." “Obama’s Plan: Mohamed Atta Gets His Driver’s License,” it blares. [I've been able to find no online version to link to.] The email reads:
"Did you know that Mohamed Atta, the 9/11 ring leader, had a valid Florida driver’s license?
"Did you know 13 of the 19 hijackers had obtained valid driver’s licenses? Armed with these licenses, eight of the hijackers even registered to vote!
"Here is the shocking fact: Obama strongly supports giving illegal aliens in America driver’s licenses.
"He said as much during two Democratic debates earlier this year. http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/2008/10/10/the-national-republican-trust-pac-is-wrong/ This is terror-pandering of the highest order. By all appearances, this message looks like it is designed as much to raise money for the National Republican Trust PAC as to discredit Obama."

So what are the facts? "In the aftermath of 9/11, we learned that five of the 19 hijackers had violated federal immigration laws while they were in the United States. In other words, they were illegal aliens. Amazingly, in the months before the attack, four of those five terrorists were stopped by local police for speeding. All four could have been arrested—if the police officers had realized that they were illegal aliens..." 24Ahead.com http://24ahead.com/blog/archives/005283.html

And this: "Obama defended his stance on driver's licenses for illegal immigrants on the same day that La Opinion, the nation's largest Spanish language newspaper, cited his support for licenses -- and Sen. Hillary Clinton's, D-N.Y., opposition -- in its endorsement of Obama." ABC News http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/2008/02/obama-defends-d.html

The Cato blog's author said it could find no online version. But I found it. Posted at The Patriot Files Forums > General > Political Debate, it was written by darrels joy who does not seem to capitalize his name. He writes:

"Barack Obama is not simply a risky choice as our next president — He is a dangerous one.This is why I have taken the helm here at the National Republican Trust Political Action Committee. Here at the National Republican Trust, we understand our mission. It’s simple. It will also drive the left-wing media nuts. Here’s the plan: We will tell the American people the truth about Barack Obama! Every time John McCain or Sarah Palin tries to tell the truth about Obama, they are painted as mean-spirited and negative. We here at the National Republican Trust can do the job McCain and Palin can’t." [Italics added] http://www.patriotfiles.com/forum/showthread.php?p=420811

Not being in the political arena enough to know if the "Trust" was part of the RNC, or whether it was a nut-job, I did some more searching and found this, filed with the Federal Election Commission:

"SCHEDULE E
INDEPENDENT EXPENDITURES
FILING FEC-365554
Committee: NATIONAL REPUBLICAN TRUST PAC; THE"

This PAC is made up of Eagle Publishing, Inc.One Massachusetts Ave., NW Washington, DC 20001; Newsmax Media, Inc. 560 Village Blvd., Suite 120West Palm Beach, Florida 33409; and Townhall.com 1901 N. Moore Street, Suite 701 Arlington, Virginia 22209.

The FEC has this on file: "Purpose of Expenditure: Email Communication Name of Federal Candidate supported or opposed by expenditure: BARACK OBAMA Candidate ID: P80003338 Office Sought: President Date Expended = 10/04/2008 Person Completing Form: Peter Leitner Date Signed = 10/06/2008"

Respectively, these three groups have spent $6000.00 Calendar YTD Per Election for Office Sought = $82500.00; Amount Expended = $20250.00 Calendar YTD Per Election for Office Sought = $102750.00; and $12600.00 Calendar YTD Per Election for Office Sought = $115350.00. [report] Generated Sat Oct 11 03:58:17 2008 http://query.nictusa.com/cgi-bin/dcdev/forms/C00455378/365554/se

The same information Cato Reports is in this website by the PAC. Why couldn't Cato find this? They're the experts.

I also found this, dated Friday the 10th: "The Republican National Committee spent nearly $5 million on ads yesterday opposing Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama. The large, one-day expenditure could be a sign of what’s to come between now and the Nov. 4 election. The RNC has only disclosed four independent expenditures this year, it has reported having $76.5 million in the bank — more than four times the amount of the Democratic National Committee." CQ.com http://moneyline.cq.com/pml/home.do

Cato continues its outrage at the "pandering" done by the PAC by saying, "While it’s true that several 9/11 hijackers got driver’s licenses and other documents, this has the same relationship to the success of their attacks as the brand of shoes they wore. They could have used their Saudi passports to board flights that day, and the same people in the same circumstances could get on planes today."

No they could not, if they were here illegally, violating federal immigration laws. Clearly this PAC is not made up of "nut jobs."

joy goes on to write: "In the closing weeks of this election, Obama is trying to remake himself as a moderate to win over lower-income, white, Democratic and independent voters. He wants to hide the facts about his record. He is the most extreme liberal ever to be nominated by a major party. We all know his 100 percent liberal rating in Congress, his support for the TOTAL gun ban in Washington, D.C., his opposition to protecting babies born alive, and his support for tax increases. But there is one issue almost all Americans agree on: Illegal aliens should not be given driver’s licenses."

There is nothing "pandering" about this. It is simply political truth that most Americans don't want illegal aliens of any nationality to get driver's licenses. And if the PAC wants to spend that kind of money, alongside the huge amounts being spent by the RNC in these last 3 weeks, let them.


Note:
I will be the featured speaker at the Center For Inquiry (CFI) meeting, October 16, 2008, in Portage, Michigan. The topic is "Atheism as a 'Religion' Protected by Courts According to the Establishment Clause" CEC

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