Anti-Cap & Trade Lobbying Group Sends Fake Opposition Letters

Filed in National by on July 31, 2009

I’m sure you’re shocked to hear that a group lobbying against the ACES (American Clean Energy & Security Act) cap & trade legislation, sent forged letters to a U.S. Congressman.

As U.S. Rep. Tom Perriello was considering how to vote on an important piece of climate change legislation in June, the freshman congressman’s office received at least six letters from two Charlottesville-based minority organizations voicing opposition to the measure.

The letters, as it turns out, were forgeries.

“They stole our name. They stole our logo. They created a position title and made up the name of someone to fill it. They forged a letter and sent it to our congressman without our authorization,” said Tim Freilich, who sits on the executive committee of Creciendo Juntos, a nonprofit network that tackles issues related to Charlottesville’s Hispanic community. “It’s this type of activity that undermines Americans’ faith in democracy.”

The faked letter from Creciendo Juntos was signed by “Marisse K. Acevado, Asst Member Coordinator,” an identity and position at Creciendo Juntos that do not exist.

The person who sent the letter has not been identified, but he or she was employed by a Washington lobbying firm called Bonner & Associates.

I think there’s no telling how many of these faked letters were sent out. Bonner & Associates just happened to get caught this time.

Update: There were also fake letters sent in the name of the NAACP. I think this may turn out to be bigger than just one lobbying group. They were obviously counting on the Congressman’s staffers to not look at the letters too closely.

But wait, there’s more. After being notified of the scheme, Perriello staffers went through other correspondence the Virginia Democrat received on ACES. They found five more forged letters, purportedly from the local branch of the NAACP.

M. Rick Turner, president of the local NAACP branch, said he checked his organization’s roster and found none of the five people who signed their name to the five faked letters.

“I am very appalled as the president that our organization has been misrepresented in this way by this bogus … letter,” Turner said. “I hope that whoever’s behind this will be brought to justice

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Comments (69)

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  1. cassandra_m says:

    Isn’t this the kind of thing that wingnuts seem to keep accusing ACORN of? Except with ACORN you have the rare bad employee, here you have a real lobbying group who was paid a great deal of money to forge this astroturf. And as you note, who knows how much of this is out there misrepresenting the views of organizations.

    So how many of the wingnut brigade will denounce this kind bought and paid for fraud? Even better — how soon before the wingnut brigade starts stating as fact that the NAACP is against cap and trade?

  2. Cassandra,

    This just confirms my cynicism that whenever the GOP spends a lot of time projecting. It must be because of their guilty consciences.

  3. pandora says:

    Just another “Oops!” It’s becoming tiresome. Excellent point about ACORN, Cassandra.

  4. farsider says:

    Voter fraud is what Acorn is and has been charged with. State by State. At some point the leadership should be accountable for the actions they have tacity allowed.

  5. cassandra_m says:

    Dream on. Individuals hired by ACORN have been charged in a couple of states.

    Contrast that with clear forgeries bought and paid for by lobbyists. We note that you decided to comment on ACORN and not the lobbyist forgeries.

  6. farsider says:

    If there is any justice they will eventually be charged as the criminal organization they are.

    From a little Acorn did a mighty hoax grow.

  7. cassandra_m says:

    The hoax is in the forged letters sent by these lobbyists and their criminal organizations.

  8. farsider says:

    I think you would have to agree that voter fraud is a much worse activity. I don’t pretend to defend the letters, if they have committed a crime they should be charged as well, as your Acorn members have been repeatedly. They are a fraudulant and criminal organization.

  9. I think ACORN deserves some criticism for having a dumb idea in the first place – pay per registration. That certainly creates some negative incentives. ACORN did the right thing – they can’t just destroy voter registration because they think it’s wrong, they aren’t the judge of that. Instead they sent the registrations in and flagged the suspect ones. That’s responsible.

    Let us not forget the voter registration shenanigans of Republicans. Having people accidentally change their registration when they think they are signing petitions, phone jamming voter hotlines and in some cases throwing out registrations from Democrats.

    Like I said – projection.

    I have a feeling that this little scandal could become a big one. Do you think it’s really the first time that this lobbying firm used this tactic? Do you really think that other firms haven’t used it? I think they depend on the fact that mostly these things are just logged for “counts” and not generally followed up on.

  10. cassandra_m says:

    They are fraudulent and criminal to the extent that they try to represent the concerns of poor people, which I gather is not a Republican Family Value.

    And I’ll note that no ACORN office or staffer has been charged with voter fraud. Unlike Ann Coulter who apparently has two voter fraud investigations open against her. Even the BushCo DOJ who spent years and a ton of taxpayer money — even firing US Attorneys insufficiently fired up over the issue — found very little to prosecute.

    This voter fraud business is part of the wingnut mythology — that somehow black and brown people are apparently not paying their poll taxes or something.

  11. farsider says:

    Ah so not actually criminal – versus actual felony charges. I’ll note that you will not give the same benefit of the doubt to these organizations as to your Acorn nuts, perhaps it was a rogue employee at ACES. Would that make it all better ?
    As for the investigation on Coulter, I don’t see a mention of charges, have you no standards for comparisons ?

  12. h. says:

    It is ok to break the law as long as you represent poor people. Wow.

  13. I notice how Republicans like to change the subject when they’re in the wrong and flog that ACORN strawman.

  14. cassandra_m says:

    h, as usual, is fond of not having any facts. I mean, it isn’t as though anyone has charged ACORN with anything even tho BushCo was working overtime to do just that.

    have you no standards for comparisons

    Sure — like all of the charges that ACORN has. Oh — they don’t have any! Just the incessant wingnut mythology.

    And while we’re at it — the lobbyist firm responsible for these forgeries has blamed it on a temp employee. Even though they apparently have a long history of exactly this kind of thing.

  15. farsider says:

    And acorn blames all their issues on rogue employees even though they have a long history of exactly this kind of thing.

  16. cassandra_m says:

    But it isn’t exactly like you have any evidence of that.

    Actually, the extremely few people who’ve been charged with anything from ACORN are rogue employees. Not ACORN. Not like your boys didn’t spend a ton of tax dollars looking:

    Attorney General Alberto Gonzales’s ex-chief of staff, D. Kyle Sampson, testified last week that “during the run-up to the midterm elections,” the A.G. told him Rove had “complained” that David Iglesias, the U.S. attorney in New Mexico, and two other federal prosecutors, were not doing enough to prosecute voter fraud—a top GOP priority. It was shortly after that, Sampson said, that Iglesias got added to the list of U.S. attorneys to be fired. (Iglesias told NEWSWEEK he had been repeatedly pushed by New Mexico GOP officials to prosecute workers for ACORN, an activist group that was registering voters in minority neighborhoods, but he found no cases worth bringing.)

    Unlike these lobbyists trying to defraud the government as well as everyone else.

  17. farsider says:

    The wall street journal is factual enough for me.

    http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110009189

  18. cassandra_m says:

    Sorry Sparky — whatever this is, it is from the WSJ opinion page, not the reported (and largely way more fact-based) part of the paper.

    This is how they lie to you BTW — they count on the fact that you’ll think that if it is in the WSJ it must be right. They count on the fact that you really have no idea that material for the reported part of the paper has to pass some standards for info, while the opinion page just needs enough tinfoil.

    Go back and try again.

  19. cassandra_m says:

    BTW — Congress will launch an investigation into these forgeries including trying to find out who paid them to do this.

  20. Yes, the WSJ opinion page is about as nutty as World Net Daily. The WSJ reporting is first-rate.

  21. cassandra_m says:

    And it gets better — a former staffer notes that this kind of astroturfing is SOP for these people.

  22. farsider says:

    I guess cnn will have to do then
    http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/22/voter.fraud/

  23. cassandra_m says:

    I don’t think you read this.

    It is the story of ONE ACORN staffer.

    Caught in voter registration fraud.

    Which is different than voter fraud, which I guess is too much to ask you to know. This certainly does not indite ACORN — but this guy who was nabbed. But if it makes you feel better to spend all evening looking for evidence, be my guest.

  24. farsider says:

    Cass you are indeed a silly person, willing to stand up for those criminals to no end.

  25. cassandra_m says:

    The silly person here is the one who cannot back up his claim that ACORN is a criminal organization. Even though 8 years of DOJ investigation tried hard to find something.

    If you are going to take what your handlers tell you at face value, you will always have a very high risk of being the silliest person in the room. Free advice for you. You are welcome.

  26. whispers says:

    I guess liberals like to practice hyprocrisy and listen to only talking points. ACORN is not an ogranization to align yourself with, it simply makes fools out of you:

    The brother embezzling a 1 million bucks of our money is here:

    http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/09/us/09embezzle.html?_r=1

    http://www.consumersrightsleague.org/uploadedfiles/Latest%20Million%20Dollar%20ACORN%20Scandal.pdf A summary that is quite telling by http://www.consumersrightsleague.org

    Convictions:

    WA 2007 Three ACORN employees pleaded guilty, and four more were charged, in the worst case of voter registration fraud in Washington state history. More than 2,000 fraudulent voter registration cards were submitted by the group during a voter registration drive.

    http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003808207_votefraud27m.html

    AR 1998 A contractor with ACORN-affiliated Project Vote was arrested for falsifying about 400 voter registration cards.

    CO 2005 Two ex-ACORN employees were convicted in Denver of perjury for submitting false voter registrations.

    2004 An ACORN employee admitted to forging signatures and registering three of her friends to vote 40 times.
    (CO)

    http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110009189

    http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122394051071230749.html

    2004 The Detroit Free Press reported that “overzealous or unscrupulous campaign workers in several Michigan counties are under investigation for voter-registration fraud, suspected of attempting to register nonexistent people or forging applications for already-registered voters.” ACORN-affiliate Project Vote was one of two groups suspected of turning in the documents.

    VA 2005 In 2005, the Virginia State Board of Elections admonished Project Vote and ACORN for turning in a significant number of faulty voter registrations. An audit revealed that 83% of sampled registrations that were rejected for carrying false or questionable information were submitted by Project Vote. Many of these registrations carried social security numbers that exist for other people, listed non-existent or commercial addresses, or were for convicted felons in violation of state and federal election law.

    In a letter to ACORN, the State Board of Elections reported that 56% of the voter registration applications ACORN turned in were ineligible. Further, a full 35% were not submitted in a timely manner, as required by law. The State Board of Elections also commented on what appeared to be evidence of intentional voter fraud. “Additionally,” they wrote, “information appears to have been altered on some applications where information given by the applicant in one color ink has been scratched through and re-entered in another color ink. Any alteration of a voter registration application is a Class 5 Felony in accordance with § 24.2-1009 of the Code of Virginia.”

    http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/22/voter.fraud/

    Need more? Because there is plenty out there.

    and here is just one example of the dems pouring money to acorn:

    http://banking.senate.gov/public/_files/FinalGSEBilll.pdf

  27. Dominique says:

    ouch. that one’s gonna leave a mark.

  28. anon says:

    Yup, a big “G” for “Gullible” marked on Dominique’s forehead.

  29. Not a wingnut outrage over these forgeries? In the name of the NAACP no less…

    Love the concept: forging astroturf!!

    As the last anony’s link points out, the voter registration fraud perpetrated by rogue ACORN temps was a crime against ACORN –their EMPLOYER. These temporary workers were ripping off ACORN by trying to collect money by faking up newly registered voters.

    Ultimate conspiracy: ACORN temps were secret GOP astroturf operators.

  30. Prufe says:

    ACORN is just the fruition of “by any means necessary”

    From a crooked seed shall rise a crooked tree, forest, landscape.

    Leave to the democrats to tout how “natural” things look.

  31. cassandra_m says:

    Anon is generous with just the G for Gullible.

    Face it people — you can repeat what your radio handlers keep telling you about ACORN, but beyond the actions of a minority of employees the organization itself is very much on the up and up.

    Oh yes — the actions of those few employees, while quite wrong, still don’t amount to voter fraud.

    But hey! Keep hope alive people!

  32. Geezer says:

    You can change your handle all you want, it won’t change the facts on the ground, to wit: ACORN was paying per registration. Some entrepreneurial types decided to forge registrations. There is not a single instance of someone actually using one of these forged registrations to vote.

    In short, you pitiful patriots just have to keep finding ways to blame your lives on those who have less power than you do, rather than those with more power. You’re basically just dick-suckers, willing to suck off your corporate masters and blame your condition on the poor. Sad and sick.

  33. Von Cracker says:

    You have to be impressed with Prufe’s use of a phase to replace words. You know, the words they are not allowed or want to say in public company, otherwise they’d be shunned in average quarters. Case in point:

    “ACORN is just the fruition of “by any means necessary””

    It doesn’t take a historian to know the origins of the phrase “by any means necessary”, but it’s slick enough to get the message across without overtly offending many readers. But all in all, it’s just another way to say that ACORN (regardless if the charges are true) is what happens when you let the ni**ers participate in the electoral process.

    You, Prufe, are one vile piece of shit.

    Regards.

  34. Prufe says:

    Methinks the lady doth protest too much!

    About what I expect from the DL hags….

  35. cassandra_m says:

    Methinks the idiot Prufe has about exhausted his vocabulary.

    About what I’d expect from our conservative morons.

    Who will stick around to dig their hole even deeper.

  36. Prufe says:

    Hate, hate, hate….stir the brew!

  37. cassandra_m says:

    See what I mean?

    Vocabulary exhausted.

    Digging the idiot hole deeper.

    Keep hope alive, Prufe!

  38. Prufe says:

    “Keep hope alive”

    Isn’t that what got the Rainbow Coalition in trouble? When keep hope alive didn’t work, they changed to “put hope on life support”. When that failed, they adopted “F— hope, just lie”

    BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY

    If it wasn’t the bullseye, I could not have pulled Von Cracker away from his Sunday afternoon porn surfing.

    And you, Cass? Usually much more verbose. I got you clenching. What gives?

    I love liberals. You’re like my own private pinball machine.

  39. Von Cracker says:

    Go ahead and choose not to address the reason you used those words. keep on projecting, it’s funny!

    Come on! Why the “by any means necessary”? Was I not to think of the Nation of Islam and Black Panthers after reading that? Was I not to think of militant afro-centric ACORN operatives practicing political subterfuge in lieu of slavery reparations! lol

    Too bad it’s Sunday and AM affirmation radio isn’t On Demand. We’ll just have to wait until tomorrow for Prufe to hear what he’s supposed to think about that….

    porn, lol! porn’s good….but watching the Orioles getting their asses handed to them is better.

    put down fail, meknows!

  40. Prufe says:

    I chose the words carefully, deliberately, and with malice toward all liberals.

    You interpreted them correctly. Your response is as I desired. Thank you.

  41. Von Cracker says:

    Ah, so you’re a masochist. nice to know.

    and why the malice towards fellow Americans? what the fuck is wrong with you?

  42. Phil says:

    I think you’re probably the only one who was thinking that VC. Stop trying to find a race card in everything.

  43. Prufe says:

    VC….A little presumptive about the power of your pistil, aren’t we daffodil?

    I don’t consider liberals to be Americans. You’re so unhappy here, you truly want a different country. North or South, or swim for it baby, got it?

  44. Von Cracker says:

    Everything, really? How do you phucking know, phil?

    What’s the purpose of using that phrase in quotes?

  45. cassandra_m says:

    The only one unhappy here is you Prufe — with your utter inability to make any points that matter.

    But you are accustomed to commenting on wingnut sites, so we get that you are behaving as you’ve been trained.

    But Hey! Keep digging your idiot hole — no one here is going to think any better of you; no one here is going to think that you are actually contributing anything. But that is the Way of All Conservatives, yes?

  46. Von Cracker says:

    seams like you’re the unhappy one here, Prufe. very insightful projection.

  47. Yes, it’s the wingnuts who are having trouble accepting that they lost the election.

  48. Von Cracker says:

    Hey cass, let’s put Phil’s premise up to the Pepsi Challenge.

    Take Prufe’s full comment about ACORN being the fruition of “by any means necessary” and poll the audience asking if it’s as racially charged as I believe it to be….meaning to conjure-up feelings of radical black political action.

    But I could be wrong, for it appears that Phil knows everything about me and my comment history! 😉

  49. Phil says:

    I would think the use of quotations would be to add emphasis. I was thinking voter fraud, and underhanded registraion techniques instead of “angry militant blackmen” that you implied.

    Eh, McCain and Obama both = the suck.

    McCain would be ripping this country a new one, just in a different direction.

  50. Phil says:

    Well VC, I’ve only been to this site for the past two or so months, and there have been a handful of posts like that so far. Now you could of went a year without any racially charged posts before I started coming here, but i wouldn’t know.

  51. Prufe says:

    For what it’s worth VC, my digust for liberals is entirely home grown. I project it based on what I have seen here. I was never very political, but Jason, Donviti, Del Dem, Cass, you have all inspired me to jump in. I’ve met some of you (if you only knew!) and I’ve found each of you to be repugnant slime, Jason and DV in particular.

    At first, I distinctly chose an independent stance. But the more I read stuff here and compared it to what was written at conservative and moderate sites, the more I found you each to be absolutely unsalvageable.

    If you don’t like what I say, look in the mirror. I simply reflect the mean and snarky things you say all the time, borne of your own self-hatred but inexcusably lobbed outward for the rest of us decent folk to dodge.

    So, yes, I am down in the hellish muck with you, and that certainly lessens my stature or position to cast any blame or claim any high ground. But since you have sworn off religion and morality, it’s a small price to pay for the sweet pleasure of bringing you irritation.

  52. cassandra_m says:

    VC certainly isn’t doing the racially charged stuff here.

    But Prufe just demonstrated how bankrupt the entire Southern Strategy business is. ACORN is supposed to be a stand in for black and brown people and poor people in general getting stuff they shouldn’t — like voter registration cards and housing and the like. The repubs haven’t figured out that no one cares about that stuff other than them now.

  53. Von Cracker says:

    THIS is what I think of that phrase.

    That, and Boogie Down Productions…oh wait, that’s By All Means Necessary. my bad

    What gave prufe away was the use of the word ‘Fruition’. How could it not be interpreted any other way than ACORN being a plot of Black militants?

  54. cassandra_m says:

    it’s a small price to pay for the sweet pleasure of bringing you irritation.

    In this you flatter yourself. You are just one more of the idiot class over here thinking that you’ve got something to say to the liberals. Like Mike Protack, you are hugely mistaken and largely the subject of ridicule. You may be irritating yourself, but you and those like you are basically here furiously leaving a document of your stupidity.

    So have at it. Perhaps you have friends or family who think that you’ve something smart to say.

  55. Von Cracker says:

    the pig got called out, cass.

    and now we’re repugnant slime! Oh, for shame! lol

    and phil’s stepping into the nutty by saying some people here make racially charged posts. Well, what is anyone to do to push back against some of the crap coming from the far-right? Not call them out? leave them unopposed?

    You, Phil, practice a time tested rethug technique….Take the effect and make it the cause.

    and here i was admiring your avatar…..

  56. cassandra_m says:

    Yeah, this guy Prufe is the pig that Sarah Palin is putting lipstick on, apparently.

  57. Prufe says:

    Mmmm…..how sweet it is….I’ll have to show up at another event!

  58. Von Cracker says:

    yeah, good idea. we can grease you up and try to catch ya.

  59. Von Cracker says:

    ah, first racism and now homophobia….what’s next on the bigot block?

  60. Prufe says:

    I don’t fear ya. I’ve met ya!

  61. cassandra_m says:

    And apparently you liked us well enough to stick around.

    The usual hypocrisy.

  62. Prufe says:

    I consider it my calling. I care about the world too much to let you lot screw it up.

  63. cassandra_m says:

    The usual thing would be for you to fix what you broke before taking on other business.

    But here you are with the usual hypocrisy.

  64. Perry says:

    “I consider it my calling. I care about the world too much to let you lot screw it up.”

    Excuse me! Your lot has already screwed it up, badly! Can you at least admit to that?

    And with your attitude, Prufe, I hold out no hope for anything positive or helpful out of you!

  65. Phil says:

    Actually, I guess I was just naive enough not to even think of race.

  66. Phil says:

    Perry, both parties have screwed everything up. It just goes back and forth between D and R without anyone realizing that we are headed in the same direction. in 2012, or 2016, the population will be voting for “change” in the republican party. Its all just a shell game.

  67. “It’s both parties’ fault” – the sure sign of a Republican who has lost the argument.

  68. Phil says:

    Come on UI, I have been posting here enough for you to know that I dislike the Republican party as much as the Democratic party. If I had been here during bush’s trouncing of the Constitution, we would probably be best friends. lol

  69. Von Cracker says:

    Hey, I’m not a party person either, but the Dems tend to be a bit more progressive and a little bit less hypocritical. Some Dems will never receive my vote….you hear me TC?