Letters Sent to Perriello Opposing Energy Bill Were Forged

Brian McNeil of the Daily Progress is reporting tonight that at least 6 letters received by Congressman Perriello’s office in Charlottesville were fakes sent in the names of two minority-based organizations in Charlottesville.

Creciendo Juntos is one organization. It serves the community in the Charlottesville area concerning issues important to Hispanic residents. The non-profit network was not happy about this.

“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.

Bonner and Associates has a reputation for astroturf campaigns in support of it’s clients. They advertise themselves as a manager of “strategic grassroots” campaigns. Although a representative from Bonner went to Charlottesville and apologized for its ‘mistake’, a characterization the Creciendo Juntos organization rejected, the mood was not conciliatory. In a letter to Congressman Perriello’s office, Tim Freilich, a board member of Creciendo Juntos and the Legal Director of the Immigrant Advocacy Program of the Legal Aid Justice Center, said:

“This was not a ‘mistake,’” wrote Freilich, who is also legal director of the Immigrant Advocacy Program of the Legal Aid Justice Center. “This was a deliberately and carefully forged letter that used the logo, address and name of Creciendo Juntos without authorization. Additionally, I understand from Ms. Hegyi that our organization was not the only Charlottesville-area organization whose reputations were used in an unauthorized manner to try to influence Congressman Perriello on this particular vote.”

After the wording in the letters sounded familiar to the congressman’s staffers, a search for an additional number of letters or other communications was launched. They looked through thousands of letters, faxes and messages. After finding the letters in question, it was discovered they were purportedly from the Charlottesville-area 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.”

In fact, Turner said, the NAACP supports the American Clean Energy and Security Act, as he said it would create good-paying jobs for blacks and reduce harmful emissions, particularly in urban areas.

“Clean energy creates jobs in the urban setting,” he said.

The fake NAACP letters were faxed to Perriello’s office from the Arlington headquarters of a company called Professional Risk Management Services Inc. A representative of the company said she had no knowledge of why the fax would have been sent from her office, adding that at least 60 employees have access to the fax machine.

Bonner and Associates has been hired by many organizations, including AARP and the Electric Utility Shareholders Alliance. Bonner is not registered with Congress as a lobbyist on energy matters currently.

As we know now, Congressman Perriello did vote for the Energy Bill in the House. Republican organizations have characterized Congressman Perriello’s vote as misguided, to put it politely. Several advertisements have questioned his vote.

Arthur Whitfield Bill Idea Moving in Positive Direction

Putting aside for the moment why Arthur Whitfield finds himself in this spot, a person’s conscience dictates that wrongs are righted, and as much as possible, a fractured man is made whole, hopefully.  No doubt this entire situation deserves to be looked at as a travesty of bureaucracy and bungling red tape. Right now, however, we need to help Mr. Whitfield.

Vivian Paige has been keeping track of support for this to get done, and she has updated the information at her site all day. Candidates Creigh Deeds and Bob McDonnell, and Del. Joe Bouchard, Del. Kris Admundson and Governor Tim Kaine have all agreed this needs to be done, with bipartisan support. Many more have expressed support as well.

One doesn’t know what a person goes through in prison. The loneliness, the pressures from boredom and repetition and all that goes with it is even harder to fathom when a person is innocent, such as Arthur Whitfield. We owe it to him, to the idea of justice such that it exists, to pay him and allow him to resume an independent life for himself. He deserves that much.

We owe it to him in good faith.

Tiger Lilly

This one is a direct descendant of one of my Mom’s favorite flowers.

Hibiscus

What Were You Doing When Man First Walked on the Moon?

   

Buzz Aldrin descends the ladder to the Moon's surface in this iconic image from Life Magazine.

I know exactly what I was doing 40 years ago this evening. It was a classic hot day in Denver, where I grew up. With no air conditioning in our house, the only better option was to go outside.

I spent my time between the yard and the living room, watching Walter Cronkite and others describing the scene. The first video from the Moon was grainy, and, as we know now, in a format that was hard to deal with.

When I went outside, I started looking at the Moon. I wanted to believe that the men from our country were actually up there. It was not hard to believe. Throughout the trials and tribulations at NASA, being tasked by President Kennedy and the Congress, really an impossible adventure of landing a man on the Moon, and returning him safely to Earth.

It wasn’t the first time I had been fascinated by the space program. I had made a model of the Saturn 5 rocket that took the Astronauts into space. I am still fascinated with it, and my Dad has told me, in his 80′s that he would go to space. He would love that airplane ride.

Questions About My Stance on NRCC Video About Energy Bill and Tom Perriello

There have been some questions about my previous article, “Desperate Republicans Lie About Tom Perriello, Energy Bill”, and why I used certain words, like ‘lie’ in the title. Let’s examine these, shall we?

Although I was called a liar by ‘wilson’, an anonymous commenter on this blog, I will be glad to answer his/her questions about what I wrote. Here is what he/she said:

I am confused as to what you consider a lie? Are you saying Obama’s clip was a lie, or the numbers. I do not see any numbers that you posted to refute this. And with Obama saying electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket, the only lies are your lie about lies.

And your premise that the ad is negative is not correct. The news itself is negative to consumers. As to the false part, you need to specify what is false. These numbers came from Obama’s own people.

If you actually mean Obama’s people lied and the actual amount we are taxed will be far more, I could go along with that.

What I consider a lie is the estimate of what it would cost citizens if the energy bill were to be implemented. The figure mentioned in the advertisement is $1,870 per year. This differs widely from other estimates, and was provided by the Republican-leaning conservative Heritage Foundation, and was reported widely by media across the spectrum after being printed in the Washington Times. Television morning shows reported the figure with little analysis, accepting it as gospel.

As Justin Bank from FactCheck.org reports in his article, Minority Whip Eric Cantor’s office released a claim that the bill would “impose a national energy tax of up to $3,100.” This figure was checked by Bank, and was confirmed with Cantor’s office.

Both figures are referring to the impact on Gross Domestic Product, which is different than an increase in energy costs. I urge the reader to read the article I mentioned on FactCheck.org and understand the difference between the two.

In fact, the widely respected and non-partisan Congressional Budget Office has said that the true cost under their estimate, (PDF) is $175 in the year 2020. The Heritage Foundation did actually calculate the rise in cost to consumers at $1,241 by 2035. This figure was not chosen to be used by the NRCC for a reason unknown to me.

Other factors, such as tax credits and other incentives will actually lower the impact. Some pro-energy bill organizations have published wildly different savings figures, which might also be expected given their agenda.

Here’s the bottom line: the Washington Times, a conservative newspaper, and the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think-tank, regularly cite each others published work for corroboration. It is not independent or verified.

“As to the false part, you need to specify what is false. These numbers came from Obama’s own people.”

Try again “wilson”. As I explained above, the CBO differs greatly from the two conservative sources I mentioned. Many more conservative institutions and media have touted the $1,870 figure as gospel, which just isn’t true.

“If you actually mean Obama’s people lied and the actual amount we are taxed will be far more, I could go along with that.”

Once again, “wilson”, you are trying to twist words in the service of your opinion of the Obama administration. I wouldn’t mind those opinions, and as you see, I am glad to discuss these items, but you need to remember that there are facts, estimates and studies from across the spectrum that will appeal to one’s own opinions and political slant.

I wish we could talk about these subjects with you using your real name, and using the full range of published opinions and studies available. I do not trust the Heritage Foundation, because they have shown me over the years to be untrustworthy, unlike the CBO.

Thanks to “wilson” and Alton Foley for bring to my attention that in my haste to expose what I feel are nothing more than attempts to hijack the issues conversations, and in the process, unseat an incumbent Congressman, MY Congressman, Tom Perriello, that I failed to lay my case out in detail so I could be understood better.

Virginia Free Press is Now Available

Today, Virginia Free Press became available to the public to read. It is a blog with a magazine format, and the hope of the writers there, of which I am one, is to raise the quality of discourse in the Virginia blogosphere.

Too many times, we have seen blog posts or articles that are nothing more than invective and one-sided views of a subject. When discussion and conversation takes place on blogs, there is a tendency to remain within one’s own sphere, i.e., Republicans, Democrats, etc. We aim to change that and have useful discussions about issues and policies that are important to everyone.

Does this mean we will never disagree? No, because that would contribute to the very one-sided atmosphere I spoke of above.

We will be welcoming you to think about issues and policies and other subjects, and to discuss them in a friendly, decent manner. No cute names, no divisive dialogues; only rational and intelligent discussion of the topics of the day.

While you check out the new blog, look at Vivian Paige’s article on the launch of this experiment here.

Welcome!