lacy, james hjta
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pal of floyd brown pol op dirty tricks
see jarvis
see ca pol report BS
notus 4 25
FEC Unanimously Dismisses Conservative Complaint Against NPR
The ruling, which affirms that NPR is a news organization, comes as Trump pushes Congress to slash funding for the public broadcaster.
The victory comes at a critical juncture for NPR. Charles Dharapak/AP
April 22, 2025
The bipartisan Federal Election Commission has unanimously dismissed a complaint from conservative activists who alleged NPR is controlled by the Democratic Party and “clearly and unmistakably” advocated for 2024 presidential nominee Kamala Harris.
The 4-0 ruling, released Monday evening, affirms what the FEC has previously established: that NPR is a legitimate news organization exempt from election laws governing political committees and candidates.
This victory comes at a critical juncture for NPR, as President Donald Trump wants Congress to slash more than $1 billion in federal support for public broadcasting. Trump this month accused NPR of publishing and broadcasting “radical, woke propaganda disguised as ‘news’” while harboring “zero tolerance for non-leftist viewpoints.”
Much of the October complaint from two conservative organizations — the United States Justice Foundation and the Policy Issues Institute — centered on whether NPR is entitled to a federal “press exemption,” which shields news organizations with a track record of producing journalism from federal campaign finance law enforcement actions.
The conservative groups argued that NPR does not meet “press exemption” standards because it “does not operate like a typical news organization.” They cited criticism of NPR’s standards by former NPR business editor Uri Berliner and President and CEO Katherine Maher’s pre-NPR history of donating small amounts of money to Democrats before she took over the news organization. They also submitted a 53-page report entitled “NPR Exposes: Why NPR Fails FEC Press Exemption” that lists numerous examples of alleged coverage bias.
But the FEC’s general counsel concluded that NPR “appears to have been acting within its legitimate press function and thus its activities are protected by the press exemption.”
The FEC’s four commissioners — Republicans Trey Trainor and Allen Dickerson and Democrats Shana Broussard and Dara Lindenbaum — officially voted to dismiss the complaint on February 24.
NPR representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment. But NPR attorneys Michael Bopp and Matthew McGill argued in a November letter to the FEC that “NPR is an independent, nonprofit media organization” and “is in no way controlled by any political party, political committee, or candidate.”
The attorneys further asserted that it is “entirely incorrect” for the conservative activists to allege that the Democratic Party “exercises control” over NPR.
“Any further inquiry is not only unwarranted, but would also waste the Commission’s valuable resources and intrude on NPR’s own First Amendment rights,” Bopp and McGill wrote.
The FEC previously affirmed in a 2017 complaint against NPR and then-host Audie Cornish that NPR is a press entity entitled to the government’s press exemption.
United States Justice Foundation President Jim Lacy told NOTUS on Tuesday that his organization does not intend to drop the matter and will now look to sue NPR in federal court.
“Was the FEC ruling fair? No, but it was expected, and it does not preclude our continuing the case to get to the bottom of illegal coordination,” Lacy said. “So the case continues … our focus will be on the discovery tools the process offers to uncover the facts of illegal coordination between Democratic Party officials and NPR.”
Dave Levinthalis a Washington, D.C.-based investigative journalist.
New on NOTUS
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- Policy: Republicans Have Long Decried Political Bias at the IRS, But See Trump’s Fight With Harvard Differently
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fake news
BS
California’s High Speed Swindle
High speed rail has been bilking the taxpayers since 2008, and we still don’t have a train
By Katy Grimes, July 25, 2023
“If it is built, California’s High-Speed Rail would be the largest public works project in state history. That fact alone appears to be intoxicating to state officials, in a perpetual quest to have California be the first state to do anything,” I reported in 2011. That’s how long California’s High Speed Rail has served only as a jobs program and a really bad joke on California voters and taxpayers.
“Even though high-speed rail has become nothing more than a pipeline project for grabbing big money and a big lie, Gov. Jerry Brown signed the rail bill Wednesday, sealing California’s economic fate. Because of the illegitimacy of the project’s intent, California taxpayers will be left holding the bill.”
I wrote that in 2012. Since then, the only thing that has changed is California Governor Gavin Newsom is now responsible for this High Speed Swindle.
The bill Brown signed in 2012 authorized $5.8 billion to start construction of only one high-speed rail line in the Central Valley, and included $2.6 billion in state rail bond funds, along with $3.2 billion in federal funds.
“But California will have to borrow every dime of that state money to build the high-speed boondoggle.”
“And that’s the only federal funding the state will receive for the entire $68-$135 billion project. The newest revised business plan claims to have reduced the cost of the project to $68 billion from $98.6 billion by expanding the 130-mile line from Fresno to Bakersfield, to Merced to San Fernando Valley, for a 300-mile segment. But many economists and rail experts project that the project could cost as much as $135 billion.”
This could have been written today but it wasn’t – this also is from 2012.
“Voters were deceived by the original ballot summary and language in Proposition 1Afrom 2008, but the state’s lawmakers seem to find that fact inconvenient. And, the entire project is lacking in private, public and debt funding to complete even the most minor operating segment.”
And in 2012, only 4 years after passage of Proposition 1A which authorized HSR, polls showed that voters wanted a re-do, and would have voted to kill high-speed rail if given the chance.
As I explained in 2012, the governor, legislators and the High Speed Rail Authority were (and still are) violating the law:
Prop. 1A states, “The high-speed train system shall be planned and constructed in a manner that minimizes urban sprawl and impacts on the natural environment.” But the impact of the rail system may actually create suburban communities around train stations within reasonable distances from urban areas and higher employment areas.
The train system will dissect both urban and rural communities which will be problematic, as well as a serious violation of the “natural environment.” The trains will travel through densely populated cities, but also through sensitive agricultural and natural areas in the state.
Other areas of the high-speed rail law are being violated as well:
* The California High-Speed Rail Authority must have all of the the funding ahead of time, before any construction starts on a new segment.
* The high-speed train system must operate on its own entirely, and in the black. That means operating profitably, and includes caveats of no government subsidy. The plan relies heavily on a projection of 100 million users by 2030, a notion that was created with manipulated data, and is absurd.
* Prop. 1A stipulates 11 requirements that must be met before funds can be released for the construction of a “corridor” or “usable segment.” Specifically, some of these requirements include actual high-speed train service, ridership, revenue projections and planned passenger service.
* The success of any legitimate transportation system must be based on connectivity. “For each corridor described in subdivision (b), passengers shall have the capability of traveling from any station on that corridor to any other station on that corridor without being required to change trains,” the law states. “Stations shall be located in areas with good access to local mass transit or other modes of transportation.” This means that, unless there are extensive connecting rail systems already in place in the high-speed rail destinations, cab companies, limo services and car rental companies should be lining up to rent space in the train stations. Commuters will not have the necessary train and bus systems to transfer to with the existing plan.
The law also calls for certified EIR’s for each segment of the system. Instead of dealing with the environmental issues, Brown tried to suspend the California Environmental Quality Act guidelines for the project. But that move brought about several lawsuits, which have held up important parts of the entire project.
In 2013, I reported U.S. Sen. Diane Feinstein’s husband Richard Blum, won the first phase construction contract for California’s high-speed rail.
In February 2019, President Trump called for California to return all federal rail funding, following Gov. Gavin Newsom’s state of the state address where the Governor vowed to kill High Speed Rail saying, “there simply isn’t a path to get from Sacramento to San Diego, let alone from San Francisco to LA.” However, Newsom flipped on his promise within the week, announcing he was allowing one odd segment of the rail project to be built in the Central Valley, which I call “the conjugal express,” going from prison to prison, Madera to Bakersfield. The goal for the strange and unnecessary rail line was so California would not have to return $3.5 billion to the federal government.
Globe contributor Thomas Buckley tells us “the California High Speed Rail Authority now has a sustainability consultant” with Arup. “Arup announced a three-year, $11.7 million contract earlier this month (it is also working on Central Valley station construction) and is tasked with handling ‘renewable energy modeling and procurement, climate change adaptation and resilience, setting sustainable design criteria, managing greenhouse gas and air quality emissions, carbon offsetting, and sustainability reporting.’”
If you thought the high speed rail swindle was going nowhere after 15 years of taxpayer funding without an operational train, this latest boondoggle contract must be payola – it really serves no other purpose other than to provide jobs and salaries to green totalitarians, courtesy of the California taxpayers.
What a swindle.
In “California’s Electric High Speed Rail: No Power, No Money, No ‘High Speed,’” we speculated if the high-speed trains will be powered by windmills, solar panels, cooking oil and algae since California’s electricity grid can’t even power the state on a hot day reliably without asking electric car owners to please refrain from plugging in.
*******
What Voters Approved in 2008
California voters approved Proposition 1A in 2008, the “Safe, Reliable High-Speed Passenger Train Bond Act for the 21st Century.” Here are some details:
* $33.5 billion cost. They approved a total cost of $33.5 billion for a high-speed rail system. The $33.5 billion was to be made up of a combination of 1/3 federal funds, 1/3 state funds and 1/3 private funds. Importantly, the investment from California taxpayers was limited to a $9.95 billion bond.
* S.F. to L.A. Voters approved a system connecting San Francisco to Los Angeles, with a trip time of two hours and 40 minutes, at a cost of $55 per ticket. But the plan has veered sharply inland from San Francisco to Los Angeles, over to the Central Valley, with a leg from Fresno to Bakersfield. And the cost of the trip jumped to $105.
*Ridership: 95 million. Even ridership numbers have been toyed with. Voters were told that there would be a ridership of 95 million passengers by 2030. Ridership estimates have decreased nearly three times since 2008, and they are still absurdly inflated. In the new report, they’re estimated to be as high as 36 million passengers by 2060 (page 5-17). That’s about a third of the Prop. 1A promise.
* Bond repayment. Repaying high-speed rail bonds will cost the state’s General Fund $647 million per year for 30 years, or approximately $20 billion for the $9.95 billion bond.
Katy Grimes, the Editor in Chief of the California Globe, is a long-time Investigative Journalist covering the California State Capitol, and the co-author of California's War Against Donald Trump: Who Wins? Who Loses?
California Globe is an independent, professional news website obsessively chronicling everything political throughout the state of California. We are pro-growth and pro-business, non-partisan and objective; we report what we see and hear without fear or favor.
Edward Abbey wrote, “There is science, logic, reason; there is thought verified by experience. And then there is California.” This site takes pride in delivering authoritative, comprehensive coverage of the people, policies and pageantry of the most magnificent state in the country.
Follow us on twitter @CaliforniaGlobe.
Katy Grimes – Editor in Chief
Katy Grimes is Editor in Chief of California Globe. A long time investigative and political journalist, analyst, and author, Grimes reports on the California Legislature and politics from the State Capitol in Sacramento, providing readers independent, thoughtful coverage, important news often overlooked, and the unvarnished truth of what’s going on in the biggest state in the nation. Grimes co-authored California’s War Against Donald Trump: Who Wins? Who Loses? with James Lacy, published September 2017, and contributed the chapter on Crime in California to James Lacy’s Taxifornia 2016.
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https://www.capoliticalreview.com/about-us/
pol op BS lacy? jarvis
fox tv biz?
or over 20 years the California Political Review has been one of the most influential and respected publications for California political discourse. Founded by the late John Kurzweil, CPR has been one of the state’s leading outlets for thoughtful, innovative political news and commentary.
Our content is meant to be hard-hitting, solution-oriented and aims to hold legislators throughout the Golden State to higher standards and good governance principles to rebuild a vibrant economy, protect individual liberties and make California as business friendly as possible.
The California Political Review is a website advancing innovative thinking on CA public policy issues. Bill Saracino, who has been with CPR since its inception in 1990 is a contributing editor. James V. Lacy, author of the book “Taxifornia,” first published by Post Hill Press in January, 2014, is the publisher of the California Political Review.
In 2014, we welcomed Stephen Frank as Senior Contributing Editor and are proud to incorporate Steve’s “California Political News and Views” as a special section of California Political Review.
"ambush’ of Valley ag firms by UFW front-and-center with U.S. Supreme Court this month
March 19, 2021 By Stephen Frank 2 Comments
The case in front of the Supreme Court is simple. Should goons, posing as union organizers be allowed to trespass, harass workers and threaten farm owners. In the old Soviet Union, this would be allowed. In the United States can goons stop your business from operating and bully workers into paying them protection money, while calling it “dues”?
“The issue at hand in Cedar Point Nursery v. Hassid, which will be heard by the nine jurists on March 22, revolves around the state’s “access rule,” which allows union organizers to visit worksites for three hours per day up to 120 days a year to discuss unionization.
Fowler Packing alleges that United Farm Workers organizers “tried to storm” the business for three straight days in 2015.
That came around the time when the UFW allegedly “stormed” Cedar Point Nursery, a starter strawberry plant grower located along Highway 97 near the Oregon Border, and disrupted operations.
Nonprofit Pacific Legal Foundation heard about the event in Northern California and connected with Cedar Point owner Mike Fahner and Fowler Packing to seek legal action to challenge the access rule.
If the goons/unions win this case, private property has ended and a Brownshirt regime, outside of government has been created. This is as important a case as the Court has ever heard.
Ambush’ of Valley ag firms by UFW front-and-center with U.S. Supreme Court this month
Daniel Gligich, The Sun, 3/10/21
A legal battle between California agriculture businesses – including Fresno County-based Fowler Packing Company – and the State of California over union rights will soon be taking center stage in front of the United State Supreme Court.
The issue at hand inCedar Point Nursery v. Hassid, which will be heard by the nine jurists on March 22, revolves around the state’s “access rule,” which allows union organizers to visit worksites for three hours per day up to 120 days a year to discuss unionization.
Fowler Packing alleges that United Farm Workers organizers “tried to storm” the business for three straight days in 2015.
That came around the time when the UFW allegedly “stormed” Cedar Point Nursery, a starter strawberry plant grower located along Highway 97 near the Oregon Border, and disrupted operations.
Nonprofit Pacific Legal Foundation heard about the event in Northern California and connected with Cedar Point owner Mike Fahner and Fowler Packing to seek legal action to challenge the access rule.
PLF attorney Joshua Thompson said the UFW attempted to intimidate the employees at both businesses.
“We certainly allege in the complaint that the purpose here isn’t to hand out leaflets and inform rights,” Thompson said. “Not only do they have the right to contact these workers in a myriad of ways, but they do in fact do so. The aim of the access regulation isn’t to set up a table and inform, it’s to intimidate. And that’s exactly what they tried to do to both of our clients, both Cedar Point Nursery and Fowler Packing Company”
Thompson also argued that the access rule is outdated.
“One of the purported justifications for the access regulation is that you can’t otherwise access workers outside of being able to come onto the private property of the business,” Thompson said. “But in Mike’s case, for example, the union not only had that authority, but they did in fact follow the workers to nearby Klamath Falls, [Oregon], where their hotels were and continued to try to persuade them to strike and to join the union. But, of course, that didn’t happen, the workers decided that wasn’t in their best interest.”
Fahner pointed to social media as a game changer for communication compared to when the California Agricultural Labor Relations Board created the rule in 1975.
“I’d just like to get the message to everyone that we’re not against unions,” Fahner said. “Unions have their place. I’m sure they do. This law in today’s world is no longer necessary. With social media, you can communicate with people around the world effectively without having to have access to a person’s private property and place of business. Was there a day in time that this could be perceived as necessary? Maybe… The effectiveness of social media and getting the message out eliminates this right to access need.”
Cedar Point employee Victor Garcia called the UFW’s actions an “ambush” and said the event could have turned violent.
“To this day it gives me chills because it changed my life in a way,” Garcia said. “There’s people that say, ‘We need protection.’ That protection, I needed it when I was young when I was a kid, when I was in Mexico. I felt like it was an ambush. It wasn’t a protest. There’s a difference between a protest and an ambush, and that’s how I felt.”
The PLF produced a video that includes footage from the day the UFW visited Cedar Point:
Fresno attorney Howard Sagaser of Sagaser Watkins & Wieland PC is an attorney set to argue the case before the U.S. Supreme Court later this month.
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Filed Under: Stephen Frank's California Political News And Views
About Stephen Frank
Stephen Frank is the publisher and editor of California Political News and Views. He speaks all over California and appears as a guest on several radio shows each week. He has also served as a guest host on radio talk shows. He is a fulltime political consultant.
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The first interesting thing about Gary Johnson is that he decided to set up his campaign headquarters in Salt Lake City, Utah, just a few blocks away from the HQ of the Church of Latter-Day Saints. That’s where Gary Johnson’s main Super PAC is located as well. Gary Johnson isn’t Mormon.
The Salt Lake City Tribune also thought it was a little weird, so they asked about it in a story headlined "Ex-New Mexico guv bases his presidential campaign in — Utah?" which begins:
A Republican presidential candidate has landed his national campaign headquarters in Salt Lake City, just a couple of blocks from the Utah governor's mansion. But it's not the White House contender you might think it is.
It turns out there’s a simple answer: Gary Johnson’s campaign chief, Ron Nielson, is based here. Ron Nielson runs a conservative polling firm called NSON Opinion Strategies, whose headquarters is the same three-story building on South Temple Road as Johnson’s campaign headquarters, and the same address as Gary Johnson’s "Our America Initiative" nonprofit, which launched his bid for the presidency in late 2009.
Unfortunately, the SLT didn’t pry any further, because this is where things start to get interesting. For one thing, NSOM has a history of working with GOP right-wingers including crotchety Mormon asshole Orin Hatch and ex-witch and masturbation-denier Christine O’Donnell, as well as the Koch’s 'Reason' magazine. They also worked on a smear campaign against Harry Reid in the run up to the 2010 election, but I’ll get to that later.
The point here is that Gary Johnson’s campaign headquarters is located in Romney’s backyard, in a right-wing Republican polling firm’s office. Gary says he likes transparency and believes he should wear his backers’ labels on his jacket like a NASCAR driver. Let me help him into his coat....
According to documents filed with the state of Utah, the person responsible for filing the paperwork to register Gary Johnson’s "Our America Initiative" is Maureen Otis, a Texas attorney with deep roots in the far-right Minutemen movement, and with Republican Party voter-suppression dirty tricks. Otis’s Texas law office is listed as the mailing address for Johnson’s "Our America Initiative."
Maureen Otis has a long history with far-right anti-immigration vigilante groups. Just a few years ago, Otis served as board secretary for the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, which the Southern Poverty Law Center described as a "nativist extremist" group that "targets individual immigrants rather than immigration policies." That Minuteman outfit collapsed after donation funds went missing, much of it paid to Maureen Otis’s own private company, "American Caging," a company that specializes in "caging as the name implies.
"Caging" was used by Bush operatives to suppress the minority vote in 2000 and 2004. Slate offered this definition of vote "caging":
"Vote caging is an illegal trick to suppress minority voters (who tend to vote Democrat) by getting them knocked off the voter rolls if they fail to answer registered mail sent to homes they aren't living at (because they are, say, at college or at war)."
Maureen Otis’ clients for American Caging included nonprofits set up for Alan Keyes, a fundraiser for Jerry Falwell’s Liberty Alliance, and other assorted homophobic Christian groups.
So what does the attorney who registered Gary Johnson’s "Our America" outfit really believe, the libertarian end of the Republican spectrum that Johnson represents, or the reactionary extremism of the Minutemen and Christian homophobes she serves?
Maureen Otis answered that question herself on her own twitter feed, such as this June 5 tweet followingScott Walker’s win in the Wisconsin recall:
"Great news for WI & start of an important trend for Repub's in the fall. Time for everyone to $$ to Romney campaign."
If Maureen Otis were the only hard-right operative involved in Gary Johnson’s campaign, her confused allegiances might just seem odd. But as you’ll see, extremist right-wing operatives like Otis are all around Gary Johnson, beginning with the "Our America Initiative" nonprofit that launched his campaign.
The lawyer who incorporated the "Our America Initiative" charter documents, an A-list GOP dirty tricks operative from Orange County namedJim Lacy, also worked with and supported the same Minutemen outfits as Maureen Otis. Like her, Jim Lacy also operates a bland-sounding direct-mail business called "slate mail" that targets Democratic voters with mailers purporting to come from fake liberal groups with names like "The John F. Kennedy Alliance" with a soothing photo of JFK on one side, and a slate of supposedly "Democratic" candidates on the other side. In reality, Republican candidates pay to have their names and faces secretly mixed in with the liberal candidates whose names and faces appear to give it a semblance of authenticity. Lacy’s slate order business is, he claims, the largest in the state of California, if not the entire country, and it wreaked so much havoc on California local elections that even Orange County residents revolted with a ballot requiring slate mailers disclose. Lacy fought to have the courts void the will of Orange County’s voters, and the courts agreed, saying that putting restrictions on how badly Lacy could deceive voters violated his First Amendment rights and constituted a form of tyranny.
So both lawyers whose names are on Gary Johnson’s main campaign group since 2009 are not only associated with right-wing extremists and violent nativist vigilantes, but more importantly, both of them specialize in fraudulent vote schemes that help their Republican Party clients win elections by deceiving Democratic Party voters.
Lacy has been poisoning American politics since his radical-right college years when he was national chairman of the Young Americans for Freedom. In recent years, Lacy has been a major backer of anti-immigrant Minutemen groups, Islamophobia, and "birther" conspiracy-theory outfits smearing Obama as a foreign-born Muslim.Lacy co-founded a handful of far-right immigrant-bashing outfits with "Birther" leader Gary Kreep, Orly Taitz’s creepier half in joint lawsuits filed to "expose" Obama’s birth certificate as a fake. Both Kreep and Jim Lacy have provided legal help to Minutemen groups in San Diego, when they were at their violent peak terrorizing homeless illegal migrant workers and vandalizing their shanties.
This summer, Jim Lacy opened up his bag of dirty tricks to get Gary Kreep get elected Superior Court judge. How he did it is instructive: On the eve of the San Diego vote, a Lacy outfit bombarded Latinos and Democrats with robocalls claiming that the sitting judge had been releasing drug dealers into their neighborhoods. Kreep won by just over 1,000 votes, and now they might have to someday face a judge who boasts of his pro bono work for the Minutemen.
But Gary Kreep is just a warm-up act. Jim Lacy’s much more serious partner in political dirty tricks operations over the past two decades is Citizen United’s co-founder Floyd Brown, a Republican Sasquatch who gets a lot of credit for the notorious Willie Horton race-baiting ads in 1988, designed to scare whites into believing Dukakis would empty out the prisons on weekends and allow black inmates to rape and rob white women. The ad worked.
As soon as Obama’s candidacy surged ahead of Hillary in 2008, Lacy and Brown unleashed a barrage of birther-propaganda, and they haven’t let up yet.Their National Campaign Fund outfit produced some of the first "birther" conspiracy commercials, including
Just days after Obama’s inauguration, Lacy and Brown were running a new campaign, ImpeachObama.com already comparing his first week in office to Hitler and Stalin’s rule.
And here is where the Gary Johnson third party Libertarian campaign begins to cross paths with these Republican dirty tricksters. As the first stimulus bill was being debated, Lacy and Brown announced another smear project, ExposeHarry.com, aimed at weakening Nevada Sen. Harry Reid’s support and turning voters against him in time for the 2010 elections. To understand where Harry Reid was most vulnerable, they hired a Republican polling firm out of Salt Lake City. That polling firm, NSON Opinion Research, is the same polling outfit whose offices serve as Gary Johnson’s Libertarian Party presidential campaign headquarters, and whose founder, Ron Nielson, is Gary Johnson’s campaign chief.
Ron Nielson later helped create Gary Johnson’s "Our America Initiative" to launch the start of his campaign for 2012. This nonprofit was incorporated by GOP dirty trickster Jim Lacy, and is represented by far-right activist, "voter caging" specialist and Mitt Romney booster Maureen Otis.
It might seem strange to see so many nasty, hard-right dirty tricksters running Johnson’s "principled" campaign, but the notion that Johnson is in any way "liberal" or a friend of progressives is nonsense. Johnson’s liberal creds begin and end with one plank of his platform: legalizing pot.
Johnson’s actual record as governor of New Mexico was that of a law and order authoritarian, on the right-wing fringe of the Republican Party.Johnson ran on a “law and order” platform, stiffening prison sentences (while recklessly privatizing the prisons), along with a broader program of slashing taxes, slashing social programs, and privatizing schools. He was divisive, and his law and order policies led to some of the worst prison violence in decades.
It wasn’t until after Gary Johnson won his second term and final term as New Mexico’s governor, and turned his attention to the national stage, that he had his big epiphany about locking up marijuana smokers. Johnson’s about-face on locking up drug offenders sounded brave and newsworthy to outsiders who didn’t know his record — wow! a pot-friendly Republican governor, how cool! Johnson wanted to make the jump to the national stage, and what easier way than adopting the one popular plank in the Koch brothers’ libertarian political platform, legalizing pot, to make journalists and the public forget about all the grim libertarian policies he’d not only talked about but implemented.
The national media elites [fell?]for it, none worse than the aging Baby Boomers at Rolling Stone, whose Tim Dickson hailed Gary Johnson as "one of the more honest – and certainly more unorthodox – politicians in the running."
Back in New Mexico, reporters who were familiar with the...
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https://www.ocregister.com/2008/07/08/dana-points-jim-lacy-makes-obamas-enemies-list/
NEWS
Dana Point’s Jim Lacy makes Obama’s ‘enemies list’
By MARTIN WISCKOL | mwisckol@scng.com | Orange County Register
July 8, 2008 at 4:49 pm
jim-lacy.jpg
Jim Lacy of Dana Point, a longtime Republican activist, is one of six people listed on Barack Obama’s “Behind the Smears” page of the candidate’s “Fight the Smears” online effort. Lacy is one of six people listed.
Among other things, Lacy is a colleague of Floyd Brown, author of the 1988 Willie Horton TV ad that helped bring Michael Dukakis down. Brown was in Irvine in May raising money with Lacy for attack ads on Obama – I had the rare opportunity to sit in on a session, which I wrote about here. Brown is also on Obama’s list.
When Lacy called me a little while ago, he sounded amused by making Obama’s list. And he promptly turned the matter into his own blog item on the FlashReport.
I asked Lacy how he felt about making the list.
“I am delighted! Barrack Hussein Obama is the antithesis of the perfect candidate, in my opinion, and I hope that if I am causing him any grief at all, my journey in politics is vindicated.”
And why, exactly, was he listed?
“I have established a series of organizations to oppose Obama, as attorney or Treasurer of record, including National Campaign Fund and Legacy Committee PAC (these have been covered in NY Times and I think LA Times articles on Floyd Brown). The committees have raised maybe a million dollars so far. Our 527, Citizens for a Safe and Prosperous America, is thegroup you had the lunch with, with Chuck DeVore. We are still seeking major funding for that.”
Here’s an excerpt from Lacy’s own blog item on the FlashReport:
“These hit lists are nothing new for liberal Democrats. During the Clinton Administration, the First Lady had FBI files pulled, some say illegally, on a number of former Reagan and Bush Administration officials who were critical of her health plan. Now Obama is doing more or less the same thing by “outing” people for exercising their First Amendment rights to criticize his liberal policies and lack of experience for office. “
Martin Wisckol
Martin Wisckol covers coastal environment and development. Previously, he spent two decades as politics reporter and columnist for the Orange County Register. He’s also held reporting positions in Miami, Jacksonville, Detroit and his hometown of San Diego, with an emphasis on land use and urban planning. He is a lifelong surfer and has spent most of his life on the coast. His work has been honored by the Society of Professional Journalists, the National Headliner Awards, the California Newspaper Publishers Association, the Florida Press Club and the American Planning Association Florida Chapter.
Follow Martin Wisckol @MartinWisckol
MORE IN POLITICS
"It is clear that a temporary leave of my City Council seat is not feasible," Delgado said.
Montebello Mayor Vanessa Delgado surrenders her seat to be sworn in as a short-term state senator
This month the EPA and Department of Transportation issued a proposed ruling to roll back some goals for greater fuel economy set in 2012.
Facing a potential rollback of fuel standards, we look at fuel economy and emissions through the years
Charlottesvilleis playing a pivotal role in pushing the ideals of white supremacists closer to the mainstream, said Peter Simi, Chapman University associate professor of sociology.
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2011
https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/blogpost/post/attack-watch-new-obama-campaign-site-to-fight-smears-becomes-laughing-stock-of-the-internet/2011/09/14/gIQAspHDSK_blog.html?utm_term=.f7696bada9f8
National
Attack Watch, new Obama campaign site to ‘fight smears,’ becomes laughing stock of conservatives
By Elizabeth Flock
September 14, 2011
”Obama
GALLERY: Click to view images of Obama’s jobs promises.
As the 2012 presidential campaign heats up, President Obama’s campaign team has set up a new Web site, AttackWatch.com, to challenge negative statements about the president made by Republican presidential candidates and conservatives.
Obama for America national field director Jeremy Bird told ABC News that the site’s goal is to offer “resources to fight back” against attacks. Mostly, that means fact checking statements from the likes of GOP presidential contenders Mitt Romney and Rick Perry and conservative commentator Glenn Beck and offering evidence to the contrary. The site is designed in bold red and black colors, and uses statements like “support the truth” and “fight the smears.”
The response to the site has been less than stellar.
(Image via Twitter)
“There's a new Twitter account making President Obama look like a creepy, authoritarian nutjob,” an Arizonan tweeted. “In less than 24 hours, Attack Watch has become the biggest campaign joke in modern history,” a contributor to conservative blog The Right Sphere wrote. The contributor linked to the following parody commercial for Attack Watch:
Tommy Christopher of Mediaitenoted sarcastically of the site, “Great. Sounds like a terrific content-generating resource for right-wing bloggers, too. Everybody wins!”
While the initiative is reminiscent of a similar online effort launched during the 2008 campaign, called Fight the Smears, the intimidating design and language of the new site seems to be what’s causing a bigger ruckus.
Fight the Smears looked and felt far less scary, quoting Obama at the top of its page in a classic hope-change statement: “What you won’t hear from this campaign or this party is the kind of politics that uses religion as a wedge, and patriotism as a bludgeon — that sees our opponents not as competitors to challenge but enemies to demonize.”
Attack Watch, on the other hand, uses the shorter tagline, “Get the Truth. Fight the Smears.”
It’s safe to say that in its 24 hours of existence, Attack Watch has already backfired, becoming a tool for conservatives to use against Obama 2012. A tweet by conservative author Brad Thor summed up the critics’s argument: “Wow, not only are Obama & Co. incredibly thin-skinned, they're paranoid.”
Update, Wednesday, 5:11 p.m.
Obama 2012’s press office just returned an earlier request for comment. According to deputy press secretary Katie Hogan, 100,000 people signed up for the site in the first 24 hours.
“This site is a tool providing our supporters with the facts they need to fight back against lies and distortions about the President’s record,” Hogan said.
Read responses from readers here.
==
Obama Campaign Opens Anti-Smear Web Site : NPR
https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=91441620
Jun 12, 2008 - Barack Obama's presidential campaign has launched a Web site called Fight the Smears. The site is a response to continuing viral efforts to peg Obama as a Muslim or ... A new Web site set up by a prominent politician is trafficking in devastating claims against Democratic candidate Barack Obama, claims ...
Attack Watch, new Obama campaign site to 'fight smears,' becomes ...
https://www.washingtonpost.com/...obama...site...smears...internet/.../gIQAspHDSK_blo...
The president's campaign team set up a new Web site AttackWatch.com to ... the president made by Republican presidential candidates and conservatives. ... online effort launched during the 2008 campaign, called Fight the Smears, the ... Get five of our best stories in your inbox every Saturday, plus a peek behind the ...
The Smear Page Smears the Smearmaster - - POLITICO.com
https://www.politico.com/blogs/.../The_Smear_Page_Smears_the_Smearmaster.html
It's a safe story, and requires little effort. ... To say that Barack Obama is not well-known means that those who dont know him ... Color me cynical but I can't help but wonder why "Fight the Smears" retort ... And while we're at it, when a reporter asked Obama directly about the Michelle comment rumor, thecandidate launched ...
Obama Campaign Makes Some Revisions to Its Candidate's Resume
www.foxnews.com/.../obama-campaign-makes-some-revisions-its-candidates-resume.ht...
Barack Obama's Fight the Smears Web site had to make some adjustments when ... part of a widespread and systematic effort... to undermine the election process. ... allegedly jumped on the back of 75-year-old Republican George Manos and ...
Beset By Smears, Obama Launches His Own Personal Snopes.com ...
https://www.wired.com/2008/06/obama-launches/
1.
How to Erase That Smea... - The New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/17/weekinreview/17vitello.html
Aug 16, 2008 - Jefferson's rival, President John Adams, was endowed with a “hideous ... election of the Republican candidate, Barry Goldwater, would mean the end of ... campaign launched a Web page, “Fight the Smears,” that in effect can take the ... Supporters who get such e-mail messages can visit theObama site to ...
What's wrong with Obama's FightTheSmears.com | Salon.com
https://www.salon.com/2008/06/16/fight_the_smears/
1.
Barack Obama presidential campaign, 2008 - Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barack_Obama_presidential_campaign,_2008
2.
Obama Caught Lying Again: He Was Member of 'New Party,' Says ...
https://www.breitbart.com/.../obama-caught-lying-again-he-was-member-of-new-part...
1.
Obama's 32 Month Report Card-Truth! & Fiction! - Truth or Fiction
https://www.truthorfiction.com/obama-report-card/
2.
**UC Davis Professors STEAL From Students/Taxpayers**
January 23, 2017 By Stephen Frank
“A number of faculty have organized a Teach-In to coincide with…the planned Walk-Out by UAW 2865.”
UC Davis profs promote anti-Trump teach-ins with school email
Anthony Gockowski, Campus Reform, 1/21/17
“A number of faculty have organized a Teach-In to coincide with…the planned Walk-Out by UAW 2865.”
http://www.capoliticalreview.com/about-us/
The California Political Review is a website advancing innovative thinking on CA public policy issues. Bill Saracino, who has been with CPR since its inception in 1990 is a contributing editor.**James V. Lacy, author of the book**“Taxifornia,” first published by Post Hill Press in January, 2014, is the publisher of the California Political Review.
In 2014, we welcomed Stephen Frank as Senior Contributing Editor and are proud to incorporate Steve’s “California Political News and Views” as a special section of California Political Review.
==
pal of floyd brown:
James V. Lacy is a frequent guest on Fox News Channel’s “Varney and Company” and is author of “Taxifornia: Liberal’s Laboratory to Bankrupt America.”
An attorney, Jim has been recognized by the American Association of Political Consultants with their “Pollie Award” for his service and knowledge in the field of postal law in election campaigns. Jim’s law firm “Wewer and Lacy, LLP” represents political action committees, initiative committees, and candidates by handling their campaign finance law matters, serving as committee Treasurer, and representing these clients in litigation. Jim also owns with his wife, Janice, Landslide Communications, Inc., which is the largest publisher of slate mail in California, estimated at 14,000,000 pieces of mail in the 2014 elections.
Jim is admitted to practice in California, the District of Columbia, and the U. S. Supreme Court. Jim served as Chief Counsel for Technology at the U.S. Department of Commerce in Washington, D.C. from 1989-91 during the Bush I Administration, and as General Counsel to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (1987-89) during the Reagan Administration. He also served as Director of Export Trading Company Affairs in the International Trade Administration (1984-87), where he managed an antitrust certification program for U.S. exporters; and as a business liaison aide to the late Secretary of Commerce Malcolm Baldrige (1981-84). In 1976, Jim was a delegate from California to the Republican National Convention for Ronald Reagan.
In 1978, Jim was a co-founding director of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, with California’s Proposition 13 author, the late Howard Jarvis, which has grown to have the largest membership of any taxpayer organization in California. He was instrumental in opening the negotiations which resulted in the Young America’s Foundation’s acquisition of the Reagan Western White House, in Santa Barbara. He currently serves as a member of the Republican State Central Committee of California, appointed by Congressman Darrell Issa. Jim received his Juris Doctorate degree from Pepperdine University and his undergraduate degree in International Relations from the University of Southern California. Jim lives in the coastal community of Dana Point, California, where he served on the City Council, with his wife, Janice, and their German Shepard, “Ibo”.
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bs
JAMES V. LACY, a frequent guest on Fox Business News Channel’s “Varney & Company,” is a third generation native Californian. Born in Oakland, he is a graduate of Bellarmine College Preparatory in San Jose, received his undergraduate degree at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles and his Juris Doctorate from Pepperdine University School of Law at Malibu. Lacy is admitted to practice law in California and the District of Columbia, and has served as a member of the Board of Visitors of Pepperdine University School of Law.
He was a delegate from California to the 1976 Republican National Convention, pledged to Ronald Reagan for President. In 1978, he served as an aide to Howard Jarvis, the author of Proposition 13. Lacy worked for Reagan’s election again in 1980 and after Reagan’s victory, joined the Administration in Washington, D.C., where he served all eight years, including as a senior executive at the Commerce Department and as General Counsel to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. Lacy and his wife Janice, a former Deputy Chief Counsel of the Republican National Committee, are partners in their law firm and a political communications company.
The Lacys live in Dana Point, California, where Jim has served as Chairman of the Planning Commission and was elected to the City Council. Jim Lacy is a member of the Board of Directors of the American Conservative Union, and the publisher of the California Political Review, www.capoliticalreview.com.
http://www.conservativebookclub.com/book/taxifornia-liberals-laboratory-to-bankrupt-america
2014 book
Liberalism is to blame for California’s rotting economy.
The biggest and most important state in America was once a land of opportunity in a wonderful climate. But times have surely changed. Things have never been worse for California and its citizens. California’s “one-party” domination of the liberal faction of the California Democratic Party and their union and environmental lobby cronies have wrecked havoc on California, and all Americans are losing as a result.
In Taxifornia, James V. Lacy identifies and examines the true causes of California’s decline.
Californians are victims of the heaviest taxation in all of America, and those high taxes are now steadily destroying the state’s economy. Tax-and-spend liberals who are in control have created a state that taxes and regulates more than any other state in the country, and have engineered a rotting economy with among the highest unemployment of any state in the nation. Its high taxes hurt all Californians by making the state too expensive for business to turn profitable. Business flight has become endemic. California’s over-regulation of businesses depresses employment in the state. A widely accepted tenet among liberal politicians, political science academics, and the media in California is that no development at all is a good thing.
It is a state that educates the worst but pays the best to its teachers, a place that is widely considered by most CEOs to be one of the worst locations in the nation to run a business, where local governments are going bankrupt, and where an out-of-control public employee pay and pension system threatens to gobble up and divert almost all available taxpayer resources to a point where cities and counties simply cannot afford to pay for police, fire, or road maintenance anymore.
California has an outdated environmental policy and an energy policy that makes the state almost totally dependent on one source of power: imported natural gas. It is a place where the public employee union worker who controls traffic in the Bay Area Rapid Transit District maintenance yard in poverty-stricken and near bankrupt Oakland is paid more annually than the Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court in Washington, D.C.
Top leaders of the California Republican Party readily acknowledge their party is in very deep trouble. Jim Brulte, the state chairman of the GOP and a respected veteran of the California Legislature, has identified the source of the GOP’s sorry condition as a “failure to recognize changing demographics” and has said that Republicans have been too reluctant to venture into communities outside of their traditional power base. “If we want to be successful, we have to get outside of our comfort zone,” Brulte said. “Too many Republican Party leaders or Republican elected officials spend all their time talking to the choir.”
Having identified the problems correctly, Lacy offers observations–with over 800 footnotes–about what can be done to restore political balance in the state, as well as some rational ideas for how California can fix its economic problems. But the economic and political situation in California today is at such an extreme, whether California can ever return to the broad prosperity of the past and once again lead the nation, is a very open question.
=
MY NEW HERO:
https://drowndinginmail.wordpress.com/tag/superpac/page/8/
junkmail
Drowning in Junk Mail
feel like I have been chasing Floyd Brown and his “Band of Merry Men” all over the internet. Read about that here and here. Policy Issues Institute does not have a website. White House Watch (A project of Policy Issues Institute) had a website but it is now dead. Impeach Obama Campaign has a website but no contact info. Every project of Policy Issues Institute has a different PO Box. I need to find the physical address.
....
Their Mailing address is:
Law Offices Of Maureen E. Otis, PC
4850 Wright Rd Site 168
STAFFORD TX 77477
But their street address is:
Civic Center Plaza
30011 Ivy Glenn Drive
Suite 223
Laguna Niguel, California 92677
But how is this law office connected to Policy Issues Institute (PII)? There are 14 companies that are listed at this address:
- Coalition For Literacy
- California Conservative Coalition
- **California Political Review**
- California Grizzly Mountain Wines Inc.
- The Legacy Committee
- Values In Common
- Nonpartisan Voter Information Institute
- **Western Center For Journalism**
- Policy Issues Institute
- Policy Issues Institute Incorporated
- **Coalition For California**
- **Tri County Taxpayers Association**
- **California Term Limits**
- **Escucha A California**
They are all run by Floyd Brown, James Lacy and few friends. James Lacy is listed as the Registered Agent for Policy Issues Institute, and his email address is at the top of the Wewer & Lacy LLC website, so I sent a note to his work email. Now I am not so high and mighty as to think that a big fancy lawer with an office in ritzy Laguna Niguel would answer my email himself, he tossed it to a lackey in the office (probably some poor kid with a brand new law degree and a mountain of student loan debt) who wrote me a nice note saying that I would be off the mailing list that day. He then passed it on to someone at Policy Issues Institute who would delete me from their mailing list.
Charity Navigator page, Citizen Auditpage
An article from The Intelligencer, Wheeling News Register from West Virginia, about junk mail aimed at seniors that mentions our friends at Policy Issues Institute.
Los Angeles Times article about how Policy Issues Institute sells it’s self out to PACs so they can use Policy Issues Institute’s lower postal rate.
here are all the projects of Policy Issues Institute (PII):
- Americans Against U.N. Control
- Impeach Obama Campaign
- United States Investigative Unit
- United States Health Congress
- White House Watch, The
- ...
- ..
===
In our state, the Howard Jarvis group pretends to act in support of seniors, but is really a front for corporate interests. HJTA sucessfully sued to get Prop 59 off the ballot two years ago. It was co-founded by James Lacy, a big player in direct mail. He works with Floyd Brown (co-founder of Citizens United, along with Bossie, now running the Trump campaign). Some the the senior astroturf direct mail scams come from their:
American Federation of Senior Citizens
National Campaign to Guarantee Social Security
National Campaign to Impeach Obama
National Senior Action Council (NSAC)
You may recall big majority of CA ppl wanted GMO label Prop 37 but flipped b/c of last minute misleading negative ad campaign. In addition, when there are too many propositions on ballot, they sometimes get ignored (or if too complicated, as corporate personhood is, they vote no, unless some person or group they respect stands up for it). A loss on 59 in the biggest state, and most progressive will be big loss for climate fight,
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https://drowndinginmail.wordpress.com/tag/superpac/page/8/
junk mail scam site protection
11 from Policy Issues Institute. Opt-out here: james.lacy.@wewerlacy.com
4 with a similar look and PO boxes in Houston TX. OMG one of them is The Western Center for Journalism run by Floyd Brown! How many of these things does he have his fingers in?
==
Republican Party of Orange County (Federal)
- 2 contributions ⋅ $4800 ('09→'10) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van_Tran lost to sanchez
Lincoln Club of Orange County Federal PAC, the
US Representative from California
Rudolph W Giuliani Mayor of New York City
US Senator and Representative from Illinois
San Diego County Republican Party - Fed
Dean Heller US Senator and Representative from Nevada
US Representative from California
==
Mysterious Political Mailers Linked To Anti-Living Wage Faction Group Maintains They Are Not 'Responsible' For Fliers Santa Monica Daily Press - November 21,2002 By Andrew H. Fixmer Deceptive mailers which may have swung Santa Monica's vote on the living wage have been linked to the measure's opponents, despite their prior denials of involvement. State campaign disclosure forms list FAIR - Fighting Against Irresponsible Regulation - as the main source of funding for three, last-minute mass leaflet mailings which appear to have misled voters. One controversial mailing, under the heading "Democratic Voters Ballot Guide For Santa Monica," listed "No on JJ" beside a checked box, beneath the Democratic candidates for governor and other state offices, Congress and city council. However, the Democratic Party said it endorsed JJ, the living wage ordinance, which was narrowly defeated Nov. 5. .... Lacy and Lord-Butcher - who created the apparent dummy committees backing Democrats, pro-choicers and quality schools - weren't available for comment Wednesday. Lord-Butcher is credit-ed as being the "father of the slate mailer," and Lacy worked in Ronald Reagan's administration. Both are considered tops in their field. |
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https://www.linkedin.com/in/jim-lacy-a0264b10
30 years experience as an attorney with significant work and management experience in government, politics and nonprofit fields.
Specialties: Organizing and managing national political entities and charities, public interest litigation including "Brown Act" private enforcement cases in CA, Federal civil rights actions in campaign finance/First Amendment claims, and CA election law Writ practice. Obtaining nonprofit postal status for advocacy organizations.
Experience
- #### Publisher
California Political Review
August 2011 – Present (5 years 3 months)
For over 30 years the California Political Review has been one of the most influential and respected publications for California political discourse. Founded by the late John Kurzweil, CPR has been one of the state’s leading outlets for thoughtful, innovative political news and commentary.
Our content is meant to be hard-hitting, solution-oriented and aims to hold legislators throughout the Golden State to higher standards and good governance principles to rebuild a vibrant economy, protect individual liberties and make California as business friendly as possible.
The California Political Review is both a daily website and a quarterly print publication advancing innovative thinking on CA public policy issues. CPR’s editor is Brian Calle, a columnist and editorial for the Orange County Register. Steven Greenhut, editor-in-chief at CalWatchdog.com, is a contributing editor for CPR and Janice Lacy serves on the editorial Board. James Lacy is the publisher of the California Political Review.
- #### Managing Partner
Landslide Communications
January 2004 – Present (12 years 10 months)
Largest producer of election voter guides (slate mail) in California.
* With almost 14 million pieces mailed in 2010, Landslide Communications persuasive voter guides have a proven record of unparalleled success, and the statistics demonstrate that a candidate has a better chance of winning their election with our guides than without them!
* Landslide Communications voter guides are among the most reliable in California, consistently mailing in every election.
* Landslide Communications voter guides are an affordable way to dominate a medium in an election. Slate mail allows a candidate or measure to pay only a fraction of the actual cost of a mailing, and our specially targeted lists make sure your message gets to exactly the right demographic of voters you care about.
Six major statewide guides include "Save Proposition 13," National Tax Limitation Committee Early Voter Guide, Republican Woman's Voice, Small Business Action Committee, California Public Safety Voter Guide and Republican Leadership series election day voter guides, mailing in Orange, Los Angeles, San Bernardino, San Diego, Riverside and Ventura Counties.
Landslide also acts as an advertising consultant for political action committees, and operates a sister company, Landslide Communications of Nevada, Inc., which provides automated calling services ("robo calls") to political campaigns nationwide.
- #### Managing Partner
Wewer & Lacy, LLP
June 1998 – Present (18 years 5 months)
Nationally recognized small law firm focused on election law and nonprofit organization law, with emphasis on political advocacy. Firm organizes, represents, advises, conducts public interest litigation for, and serves as Treasurer of Federal and state political action committees, California state ballot measure committees, national charities, social welfare and advocacy organizations. See www.wewerlacy.com.
- #### Chief Counsel for Technology
Technology Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce
June 1989 – December 1991 (2 years 7 months)
Managed legal department of Technology Administration, including lawyers at Policy Division at Commerce Department headquarters in Washington, D.C., and lawyers at National Institute of Standards and Technology in Maryland.
- #### General Counsel
United States Consumer Product Safety Commission
February 1987 – January 1989 (2 years)
Reagan Administration Senior Executive Appointment
- #### Director, Office of Export Trading Company Affairs
U.S. Department of Commerce
November 1984 – February 1987 (2 years 4 months)
Senior Executive position in Reagan Administration. Issued anti-trust certificates to exporters and managed staff.
- #### Staff member, Office of Secretary of Commerce
U.S. Department of Commerce
June 1981 – November 1984 (3 years 6 months)
Served on staff of Secretary of Commerce Malcolm Baldrige in Office of Business Liaison.
==