LIVE AT FIVE: 03.05.13

Questions about the “MalaysiaGate” controversy — in which American bloggers were paid as part of a foreign government’s public-relations campaign — continued to be asked Monday, the fourth day since Rosie Gray of BuzzFeed reported on conservative blogger Josh Treviño’s disclosure to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).

Gray reported Friday that Treviño filed his disclosure in compliance with the Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA), listing $389,724.70 he collected as part of the Malaysia deal, reportedly brokered by Internet consultant David All.

Treviño and All, both aligned with the Republican Party, were partners with Democrat campaign consultant Jerome Armstrong in a now-defunct Web site, MalaysiaMatters.com, that was part of the paid P.R. operation. Treviño also disclosed that he paid 10 “independent contractors” to provide “opinion writing” about Malaysia in 2009 and 2010. Those payments totalled $130,950, including $36,000 to Ben Domenech, $30,000 to Rachel Ehrenfeld, $24,700 to Brad Jackson, $11,000 to Christopher Badeux and $9,500 to Rachel Motte. Minus those payments to subcontractors, Treviño’s net share of the Malaysia deal amounted to more than $250,000 over the course of three years, from May 2008 to April 2011. His FARA disclosure, filed Jan. 24 this year, described Treviño’s clients:

Government of Malaysia, its ruling party, or interests closely aligned with either, acting through one or more of APCO Worldwide and the David All Group (May 2008 through September 2008), and FBC Media (February 2009 through April 2011), with whom registrant had its relationship.

The Malaysian P.R. campaign generated online articles in a number of publications including Red State, National Review, Huffington Post and the Washington Times. An October 2010 article Domenech wrote for the San Francisco Examiner (“The search for moderate Muslims“) included these paragraphs:

Yet one example of a call for moderate engagement that may prove quite profitable for our relationship with the Muslim world can be found in the Malaysian example. While on a trip to New York last month, during which he called for a “global movement of moderates” to retake the center of the international conversation, I asked Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak about the experience in his country.
“We have always taken the position that Islam is an integral part of public policy in Malaysia. By doing so, we have taken the wind from the sails of the extremists. There is no contradiction between being moderate and being Muslim,” Najib told me. “Being moderate, taking the middle path, is fundamental to Islam. It is one of the pillars of Islam. Muslims have rights, but it’s also enshrined in the teachings of Islam to safeguard non-Muslims in your midst. It’s wrong for Muslims to even be unkind to non-Muslims.”
One prominent example in recent months has been the jailing of two Muslims convicted of church arson during a series of religiously motivated attacks earlier this year. They were given five year jail sentences.
“We want to show that we are fair. If you desecrate a church, or a mosque, or a temple, the punishment is and should be the same,” Najib said.

Rosie Gray’s Friday article at BuzzFeed focused on Treviño’s report and the work of his Republican-aligned “independent contractors,” resulting in extensive coverage at Democrat-leaning sites like Daily Kos, Talking Points Memo and MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow blog. However, since my Sunday report about the role of Democrat consultant Jerome Armstrong in the MalaysiaGate story — including an update Sunday night — progressive bloggers appear to have lost interest in the story.

Whereas the Friday report by Gray quickly generated an extensive thread at the Memeorandum blog aggregation site, none of the liberal blogs that wrote about Gray’s story has linked my report about the involvement of Armstrong, a former business partner of Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas Zuniga. Armstrong and Moulitsas co-authored the 2006 book, Crashing the Gate: Netroots, Grassroots, and the Rise of People-Powered Politics.

Armstrong, who worked on former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean’s failed 2004 Democratic presidential primary campaign, runs the Webstrong consulting firm whose site describes its business:

WebStrong provides integrated communications solutions to help you to connect with your audience, be part of the conversation, influence the debate, build a community, and organize and empower your supporters. We help you create buzz, change public policy, win elections, find your audience, and mobilize them into taking action.
Our strategic consulting services services include public relations, reputation management, coalition building, advertising, social media management, and online advocacy for political, entertainment, sports and issue-based clients.
Our technology services include an integrated organizing platform (Netroots DNA), as well as traditional CMS, CRM, broadcast email, social media integration.

Armstrong’s firm lists numerous elected Democrats among its current or former campaign clients, including Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown and Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin, as well as Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and former Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, recently confirmed as U.S. Secretary of State.

The Web site of Armstrong’s consulting firm, whose client list also includes the powerful left-wing labor union SEIU, also specifically cites “political leaders in Malaysia” among its international clients.

Webstrong site describes its Malaysian busiess

Jerome Armstrong’s involvement in the MalaysiaGate deal was reported by Ben Smith at Politico in 2011, but Gray’s BuzzFeed article Friday about Treviño’s report to DOJ did not mention Armstrong’s role in the lucrative P.R. campaign, creating the impression that it was strictly a Republican operation. Not only did this inspire partisan sneering by liberal bloggers (Daily Kos said it proved the GOP “really is just an astroturf operation from top to bottom”), but it also influenced other media coverage, including a commentary on CNN’s Reliable Sources by media critic Howard Kurtz:

Some American journalists it turns out have been secretly taking money from the government of Malaysia. One of them according to “Buzzfeed” is conservative commentator Joshua Trevino who was paid $390,000 over a three-year span and paid out smaller sums to other right leaning journalist was to write about Malaysia.
Now Trevino who lost his column in London’s “Guardian” for not coming clean about the payments lied to “Politico” in 2011 saying I was never on any Malaysian entity’s payroll and I resent your assumption that I was.
Trevino now tells “Buzzfeed” the payments were part of a fairly standard PR operation and when “Buzzfeed” editor Ben Smith asked him about them, quote, “I ought to have come clean with him at the time.”
The “Huffington Post” has deleted Trevino’s posts for his violation of its ethical guidelines. By the way, taking money from a foreign government without not disclosing it, is not some typical PR operation, it is outright deception.

Also, and rather ironically, the Russia Today network (reportedly “funded by the Federal budget of Russia through the Federal Agency on Press and Mass Communications of the Russian Federation“) had a report about what it called “Paid Propaganda”:

There has still been no answer to the question I raised Sunday, “How Much Cash Did Jerome Armstrong Collect in the ‘MalaysiaGate’ Operation?” Asking that question, however, apparently prompted further reporting by Rosie Gray, who published a lengthy news article Monday afternoon at BuzzFeed:

Two of the main players in the campaign funded by the Malaysian government that placed undisclosed propaganda in the American press did not file with the Department of Justice under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), an omission that lawyers say could place them in legal jeopardy. . . .
Trevino, who last week belatedly filed his own foreign agent registration, told BuzzFeed on Sunday that Armstrong was hired to be his liberal counterpart on MalysiaMatters. . . .

Click here to read the rest of the article. Gray’s account includes quotes from an e-mail Armstrong sent to Ben Smith in 2011, basically dismissing his work for the MalaysiaMatter.com site as an insignificant “temp contract,” neither secretive nor sinister, but without saying how much he got paid for doing it. The fact that Treviño says he was advised by a lawyer that he was required to file a FARA report with DOJ, however, raises the question of whether Armstrong’s failure to register as a foreign agent was a violation of federal law.

Gray writes tersely: “Armstrong did not reply to repeated requests for comment.” Thus, the merchant of “integrated communications solutions” is not communicating. Gray also reports that it appears, because David All’s project was under the aegis of APCO Worldwide, it would have been APCO’s responsibility to report its Malaysian-funded advocacy to the government under FARA. However, this does not explain the Malaysian amnesia that makes it difficult for David All to remember how much he or Armstrong were paid:

“It’s so long ago,” All said when reached by phone on Monday. . . .
“I’m sort of gathering more information and looking into this a little bit more,” All said.

This is certainly quite convenient: Having scored a deal that enabled him to pay nearly $400,000 to Treviño and an undisclosed (but probably not insignificant) sum to his good friend Jerome Armstrong, now David All needs to gather more information and look into this in order to recall who got paid what. And while All can’t tell Rosie Gray how much cash he or his Democrat partner Armstrong collected, All was apparently willing to leave Josh Trevino, Ben Domenech and other conservatives twisting in the wind — as disgraced and humiliated scapegoats — even as the Malaysian pay-to-play operation he organized was portrayed everywhere as a strictly Republican scandal.

What next in MalaysiaGate? Well, while David All rummages through dusty file boxes full of cancelled checks and invoices in his desperate search for the impossible-to-remember dollar figures on the deal he brokered for his buddies, I expect Rosie Gray will do more of her thorough reporting. And perhaps other reporters will be able to remember the phone numbers of people on Capitol Hill and at the Department of Justice who might care to comment — hey, can’t hurt to give it a shot, right? — on the news about the work done on behalf Malaysian interests by people who (allegedly) failed to comply with the Foreign Agent Registration Act.

Is it possible that any members of congressional committees dealing with Foreign Relations are considering investigations? Is the watchful eye of Attorney General Eric Holder examining whether federal laws are being adequately enforced? Is there a snowball’s chance in hell that liberal bloggers will take further notice of MalaysiaGate now that the involvement of a Democrat political consultant is part of the story?

“Vis Numar sees all!”

UPDATE: I regret my previous omission of credit to former Raw Story editor Ron Brynaert, whose research turned up many of the facts about Armstrong’s consulting business, including the photo of Armstrong and Trevino in Malaysia.

PREVIOUSLY:

Category: Blogging, Scandal

@Rare-in To Go

Posted on | March 4, 2013 | 17 Comments

by Smitty

Email rumors abound today of a new right-of-center news site called Rare that is set to launch Real Soon Now. It looks like this is a venture backed by Cox Media Group, and edited by somebody who is excellent, as judged by her career trajectory, but with whom this blog has had a totally schizophrenic relationship, for reasons that are beyond my control.

This is an exciting development. There aren’t a lot of challenges we have that more traditional voices in the media can’t help solve. Bookmark Rare now for good justice.

Category: Uncategorized

Wondering If Lawyers Aren’t Really A Test Of The Infinite Mercy Of The Almighty

Posted on | March 4, 2013 | 9 Comments

by Smitty

Nicely done, by a lawyer:

Via Wysocki

Category: Uncategorized

However, She Is Not a Witch

Posted on | March 4, 2013 | 6 Comments

Headline, New York Daily News:

Former Miss Delaware Teen USA
lost tiara over porn role that
paid just $1,500: producers

Category: Delaware, Scandal, Sex

Is It Time For The Two Scandinavian Ladies To Sing On Defunding ObamaCare?

Posted on | March 4, 2013 | 8 Comments

by Smitty

Heritage notes:

This week, the House plans to take up a bill that would fund the government for the remainder of the 2013 fiscal year. As of March 1, we are now living under the sequester that was passed overwhelmingly by Congress and signed into law by President Obama in the summer of 2011. This continuing resolution would fund the government through September 30 under the sequester while also attempting to mitigate the cuts on defense programs by attaching a defense appropriations bill.

Red State is sounding the alarm:

If nothing is done to stop them, GOP leaders plan to put forth a clean CR that funds Obamacare. This is unacceptable.
With health insurance premiums skyrocketing, employers dumping workers from health plans, and new reports predicting trillions in new debt as a result of Obamacare, we must defund this behemoth before it fully takes effect next year. Many of the new members pledged to defund Obamacare, yet they have dithered for two years in the hopes that it would be struck down by the Supreme Court or that Republicans would win the White House. In fact, 105 current members of the House GOP Conference signed a letter last August committing to defund Obamacare.
Let’s not be fooled, if Obamacare is allowed to take effect for one year, it will be impossible to reform Medicare, roll back dependency, and balance the budget. This is the GOP Waterloo.

Craning the ear toward the future, I hear the GOP leadership saying, “Hey, 2012 was an ObamaCare referendum. Suppositories and elections matter.” There’s not much left to do but link ABBA, AFAICT:

That is, until the whole sorry mess just crashes. The logic of the Progressive Project seems to be that it ain’t done until the last shreds of the Enlightenment are burned to heat this vast Utopia.

Thus, it looks like time to talk about the post-crash planning.

Update: Bill Quick, as usual, comes off as a total GOP apologist:

The GOP has literally become the party of Gutless Old Pussies, terrified to resist the victorious democrats on any significant welfare state issue because they are also convinced of the truth of Mittens Romneycare’s infamous observation about the “47%”:
Romney’s 47% remark – USATODAY.com

WASHINGTON — Mitt Romney told a group of donors in a secretly taped video that 47% of Americans will vote for President Obama because they are “dependent upon government” and “believe that they are victims.”

Hence their new strategy for holding onto their powers and perks is to avoid being seen as offensive to the great welfare plantations currently owned and operated by the Democrat Faction.

Apologist; antagonist: I keep confusing these words. Let me be the apologist: while it’s stirring to see an Ernest E. Evans ring up ‘all ahead flank III’ and go right down the enemy throat, politics is more a game of survival and attrition. The voters opted to relive the 1930s last November, History and Economics be damned. If there is ever to be hope of reform and restoration, then not taking further direct hits is crucial. It looks like the GOP may be striking a balance between letting the facts of Sequestration intrude upon Obama’s narrative, without getting beaten with a Continuing Resolution stick. A maximally brave strategy? Certainly not.
But ObamaCare is the law of the land. It’s likely to succeed in substantially wrecking health care in the U.S. The wiser course would seem to be to drive for gradual market reforms. But the Voters. Must. Demand. Such. and say so at the ballot box.

Category: Health Care

LIVE AT FIVE: 03.04.13

Posted on | March 4, 2013 | Comments Off on LIVE AT FIVE: 03.04.13

— compiled by Wombat-socho

TOP NEWS
White House Backs Down From Sequester Apocalypse Ranting

Chief thug and economics adviser Gene Sperling

GOP still to blame for as-yet-unseen horrors, though
Related: Sperling and Woodward agree to move on

Cardinals Weigh Future Pope
Well, he weighs more than a duck, so that’s good.

Baby Born With HIV Cured
Aggressive drug treatment seems to have done it

POLITICS
McConnell & Boehner: Republicans United On Sequester

Speaker Boehner and Minority Leader McConnell

Leadership vows no more tax hikes

Walmart Foundation Head Burrell Tapped For Head of Budget Office

California GOP Rebuilding From The Grass Roots

Mitt Romney Talks Campaign Mistakes, Political Future (Video)

Sorority Re-Enacts Suffragettes’ 1913 Voting Rights March

Giffords’ Husband To Testify In Favor Of Colorado Gun Bill

E-Cigarettes Fire Up Controversy In St. Paul

Court To Review Speedy Approval Of NY Gun Law

THE ECONOMY, STUPID
Oil Prices Sag In Asian Trade: NYMEX $90.62, Brent $110.53
Bank Of Japan Nominee Kuroda Pledges Bolder Action
Asian Stocks Fall On PRC Property Drop; Yen, Metals Advance
Federal Lawsuit Accuses Anheuser-Busch Of Watering Beer
Warren Buffett Sees Greater Opportunity In 2013
Las Vegas Sands Admits It May Have Violated Foreign Corrupt Practices Act
Devil Is In The Details As Swiss Vote To Curtail CEO Pay
Groupon’s Next CEO Must Choose Which Business It’s Really In
Evernote Says Security Breached By Hackers
BigDog Robot Can Now Hurl Cinder Blocks
Apple, Samsung And Google Under Fire At Mobile World Congress
Router Crash Downs CloudFlare Services
FCC To Probe Cell Phone Unlocking Ban
Are Video Games Like “Assassin’s Creed” Rewriting History?
“Mass Effect: Foundation” Expands Shepard’s Universe
“Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance” – Exhilarating
Capcom Wants “Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate” To Take Off In The U.S.

SPORTS
Carl Edwards Snaps Long Drought To Prevail At Phoenix

Carl Edwards fnally wins one

First win in two years, 70 races

Blackhawks Extend Record Streak With Shootout Win In Detroit

Lakers Back to .500 With 98-99 Defeat Of Hawks

Rangers Beat Sabres 3-2 After Sabres’ Kaleta Blindsides Richards

Mavericks Embarrassed By Rockets 136-103

Blue Jackets Edge Avs 2-1 In Overtime

Pacers Hold Off Late Bulls Rally For 97-92 Win

Andruw Jones, Roger Bernadina Spark Dutch To Shocking 5-0 Upset Of ROKs At WBC

FAMOUS FOR BEING FAMOUS
Charlie Sheen: I Can Save Lindsay Lohan

"I know that I can sve this woman and that noone else can"

Charlie & Lindsay

“(She) clearly needs a mentor…”

Heidi Klum Joins “America’s Got Talent” As Fourth Judge

Jamie Lynn Spears Is Engaged

“Jack” Opens To Potentially Disastrous $28 Million In North America

Justin Bieber’s “Worst Birthday”

“Fresh Prince” Theme Mistaken For Mass Shooting Threat

James Bond Bosses Want Adele To Sing Next Bond Theme

Kelly Brooks’ Ex Is Dating Her Boyfriend’s Ex

“I Will Have A Child”: Rihanna Reveals Baby Plans With Chris Brown

NBC Discussing Jay Leno Exit Plan

SNL Wakes Up, Mocks President Obama

“Oldboy” Director Makes Visually Stunning, Dramatically Drab U.S. Debut With “Stoker”

FOREIGNERS
Four Policemen Butchered As Kenyans Go To The Polls
Death Toll From Karachi Car Bombing Reaches 45
Dennis Rodman Says Kim Jong Eun Wants Obama To Call
Syria, Iran Assail U.S. On Aid To Syrian Rebels
Chadian Soldiers Fighting In Mali Claim Kills Of Two Jihadi Leaders
Fighting Continues In Sabah; Tensions Rising Between Malaysia, Philippines
Kerry Announces $250 Million In Aid For Egypt
Chief Minister Modi’s Address At Wharton Cancelled

BLOGS & STUFF
American Power: P-CPAC – Pamela Geller Banned From CPAC
Atlas Shrugs: Obama Goon Administration Bullies Young Female Reporter
Ed Driscoll: War On Women – Obama Aide Calls Female Journalist “B***h, C**t, A*****e”
Weekly Standard Blog: Sperling Admits Obama Misled In Debate, Did Propose Sequester
Legal Insurrection: Obama Apparently Doesn’t Regret Staking Out That (Misleading) Claim About The Sequester
Scared Monkeys: Rodman Says Obama And Kim Jong Un Could Bond If They Shot Some Baskets
Weasel Zippers: Obama Admin Rewarding Egypt With $190 Million In Aid
Gateway Pundit: Millions Of Aid To Egypt Announced As Salafists Unleash Morality Police
NRO Corner: Former Obama Adviser Romer Says Raise EITC, Not Minimum Wage
Protein Wisdom: Kagan, Sotomayor Browbeat Scalia Over Voting Rights Act
Jawa Report: Students Tackle Gunman, Get Suspended From School
Clayton Cramer: More Evidence That Idiots Have Taken Over Some Public Schools

Category: Live at Five

‘MalaysiaGate’ Update: Still More Questions Than Answers (So Far)

Posted on | March 3, 2013 | 9 Comments

Since I raised questions about progressive blogger/consultant Jerome Armstrong’s role in MalaysiaGate, a few sources have started to supply helpful information and background. Frankly, I was shocked when former Raw Story editor Ron Brynaert — certainly no ally of the Right, nor previously a friend to me — started Tweeting to me his own research into Armstrong’s activities.

Credit where credit is due, however, so I must thank Brynaert for his finds, including a photo from Jerome Armstrong’s Photostream showing Armstrong, conservative Josh Trevino and two journalists (British and German, I believe) meeting with a former top Malaysian government official during a June 2008 visit to Malaysia. (If it’s been deleted, don’t worry: Screencapped it already)

Armstrong’s Twitter account has been silent since Thursday, and his MyDD.com site was offline last time I checked. Meanwhile, Brynaert pointed out, it appears that Armstrong tried to scrub from MyDD a July 2008 post he wrote called “Crazy Times in Malaysia.” Ah, but the cache is still online and, even if Jerome could find some way to delete the cache, too late — screencapped that, too.

My plan had been to do a whole new article about all this, but then the phone started ringing with sources wanting to discuss the story, so the full article will have to wait until tomorrow. However . . .

It appears that, while Rosie Gray of BuzzFeed focused her Friday article on the nearly $400,000 that was reported to the Justice Department by conservative blogger/consultant Josh Trevino (in compliance with the Foreign Agent Registration Act), Trevino’s slice of the Malaysia P.R. action may have been substantially less than half the pie.

In other words, Trevino appears to have been a subcontractor to consultant David All, who was in turn paid by the D.C.-based firm APCO Worldwide. A source familar with online consulting practices — but with no specific direct knowledge of David All’s operation — guessed that if Trevino got about $400,000, All’s contract with APCO Worldwide was probably worth at least $2 million.

“Money trickles down,” this source said.

And here’s the big thing: There is reason to believe that Jerome Armstrong was involved with David All’s Malaysia P.R. operation before Trevino was brought in. When I shared that information with my online consulting source, he immediately speculated that Armstrong’s cut of the action must have been larger than the amount paid to Trevino. “That’s just how this s–t works,” my source said, i.e., the second guy brought in on the deal would normally be paid more than the third guy in.

But that’s just speculation, and so far neither David All nor Jerome Armstrong have said anything about what they were paid in the Malaysia P.R. deal. The only reason we know the details of Josh Trevino’s involvement is that Trevino filed his F.A.R.A. compliance form with the Justice Department and, so far as I’ve been able to learn, neither All nor Armstrong have filed a F.A.R.A. report.

For background, here is Rosie Gray’s Friday article at BuzzFeed, and here is Ben Smith’s 2011 Politico article that named Jerome Armstrong as a participant. Nobody has yet accused anyone involved of breaking any law, so “MalaysiaGate” may not technically be what you would call a full-blown scandal. However, another source — not involved in the story, and not a consultant — said the ethical issues “give me the heeby-jeebies.”

Yeah, me, too. And if I had $389,724.70, maybe I could buy something to cure the heeby-jeebies.

Maybe “Vis Numar” can afford the cure, eh?

Category: Blogging

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The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

LIVE AT FIVE: 03.05.13

‘MalaysiaGate’ Day Four: Conspicuous Silence and Convenient Memory Lapses

@Rare-in To Go

Wondering If Lawyers Aren’t Really A Test Of The Infinite Mercy Of The Almighty

However, She Is Not a Witch

Is It Time For The Two Scandinavian Ladies To Sing On Defunding ObamaCare?

LIVE AT FIVE: 03.04.13

‘MalaysiaGate’ Update: Still More Questions Than Answers (So Far)

THE FULL METAL JACKET REACH-AROUND AWARD

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