I wonder if this is part of what Palin was talking about as to an surrender?
Palin talked about talking to one in a store. She should have stayed in Fl. for more than just one town hall meeting besides that of a none GOP strong location. I'am sure there are others who would like more direct answer to their questions .
It just seems strange to me there are so many un answered connections. With all these questions a governor of the state of Fl. showing support and helping to raise funds for those with these in question.
Along with the fact the state of Fl. over budget and how one who can not control an state would be ably to control our nation. Not that it could get much worse.
Maybe why McCain did not pick Gov. Charlie Crist for VP which might have brought up to many questions.
Gov. Charlie Crist and Florida GOP Chairman Jim Greer are hosting a fundraiser for U.S. Rep. Tom Feeney of Oviedo next week to infuse his campaign with cash.
The fundraising dinner will be at Greer’s Oviedo home .
Feeney’s race against well-funded Democrat Suzanne Kosmas is considered one of the closest toss-up congressional contests in the country, prompting Feeney to start airing a public apology last month for his ties to convicted former lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
“People make mistakes. He said he made a mistake, and I think voters like to have someone who’s honest,” Greer said. “It was a unique ad in the political world.”
Governor Crist to attend Feeney event
Some interesting connections The Cookie Jar Donation
Some interesting facts.
Feeney Has Not Returned All of Abramoff's MoneyIn 2006, the Associated Press reported that Feeney accepted $4,000 from Abramoff, the Indian tribes that hired him or SunCruz Casinos, which Abramoff purchased with a partner, and Feeney's campaign kept the $3,000 received from Indian tribes represented by Abramoff. [Associated Press State & Local Wire, 1/04/06; Orlando Sentinel, 1/08/06]
McCain gave some of his money back do to questions that Governor Christ don't seem to have an issue with.
Feeney Repeatedly Voted to Stop Ethics Committee Investigation into AbramoffIn 2006, Feeney voted in favor of two motions to kill a proposal that forced the House Ethics committee to immediately begin an investigation into members of the House embroiled in the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal. [HRS762, Vote #87, 4/05/06; HRS 746, Vote #76, 3/30/06]
Feeney has spent $147,223.71 since last Election Day on Legal FeesFeeney's total legal bills for this election cycle come to over $147,000, with more than $90,000 of those payments being made from Feeney's campaign account. Feeney even paid $15,000 in legal fees in July alone. [fec.gov; Legislative Resource Center]
The event is planned for 5:30 p.m., Tuesday in Oviedo.Feeney is running for re-election in the U.S. House District 24 campaign against Democrat Suzanne Kosmas, of New Smyrna Beach, and Guarav Bhola, an independent from Orlando.
The event is planned for 5:30 p.m., Tuesday in Oviedo.Feeney is running for re-election in the U.S. House District 24 campaign against Democrat Suzanne Kosmas, of New Smyrna Beach, and Guarav Bhola, an independent from Orlando.
The Feeney event is a fund-raiser. Co-chairs are asked to raise $5,000, hosts $1,000 and all who would like to attend are expected to bring a $250 contribution
December 6, 2004—The manipulation of computer voting machines in the recent presidential election and the funding of programmers who were involved in the operation are tied to an intricate web of shady off-shore financial trusts and companies, shady espionage operatives, Republican Party politicians close to the Bush family, and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) contract vehicles.
An exhaustive investigation has turned up a link between current Florida Republican Representative Tom Feeney, a customized Windows-based program to suppress Democratic votes on touch screen voting machines, a Florida computer services company with whom Feeney worked as a general counsel and registered lobbyist while he was Speaker of the Florida House of Representatives, and top level officials of the Bush administration.
According to a notarized affidavit signed by Clint Curtis, while he was employed by the NASA Kennedy Space Center contractor, Yang Enterprises, Inc., during 2000, Feeney solicited him to write a program to "control the vote." At the time, Curtis was of the opinion that the program was to be used for preventing fraud in the in the 2002 election in Palm Beach County, Florida. His mind was changed, however, when the true intentions of Feeney became clear: the computer program was going to be used to suppress the Democratic vote in counties with large Democratic registrations.
According to Curtis, Feeney and other top brass at Yang Enterprises, a company located in a three-story building in Oviedo, Florida, wanted the prototype written in Visual Basic 5 (VB.5) in Microsoft Windows and the end-product designed to be portable across different Unix-based vote tabulation systems and to be "undetectable" to voters and election supervisors.
Yang, an engineering and computer services company subcontracted to NASA prime contractors like Lockheed Martin, was founded in 1986 by Dr. Tyng-Lin (Tim) Yang. Granted minority-owned "Section 8A" and woman-owned preferential status by the U.S. government, Yang's clients also include the Florida Department of Transportation (DOT). Yang's President, Li-Woan (Lee) Yang, is Tim Yang's wife.
Feeney was the registered agent for another Yang company, Y & H Greens, Inc., a company that was dissolved in 1988 and operated from the Yangs' residence on Merritt Island. The Yangs also serve as co-trustees for an entity called Yang of Merritt Island, Ltd., founded on January 31, 2000, and also run from their residence.
In the autumn of 1999, Curtis, who served as a sort of technology adviser for Yang, first became aware of Feeney's interest in election rigging. Curtis said at one meeting, Feeney "bragged that he could reduce the minority vote and deliver the election to 'George.'"
At the same meeting, according to Curtis, Feeney said he had "implemented a list that would eliminate thousands of voters that would vote for Democratic candidates" and that "a proper placement of police patrols could further reduce the black vote by as much as 25 percent."
Feeney's desire to manipulate the vote would be manifested in his home base of Volusia County in the 2000 presidential election. According to The Washington Post, at 10 p.m. on election night, Al Gore was leading Bush in Volusia County by 83,000 to 62,000 votes.
Feeney's desire to manipulate the vote would be manifested in his home base of Volusia County in the 2000 presidential election. According to The Washington Post, at 10 p.m. on election night, Al Gore was leading Bush in Volusia County by 83,000 to 62,000 votes.
One-half hour later, Gore's vote total had been reduced by 16,000 to 67,000 and an obscure Socialist candidate saw a sudden surge to 10,000 votes in a precinct with only 600 voters. The information on the Volusia optical scanner voting anomalies came from a leaked internal Diebold memorandum. In the end, Bush won Florida and the White House by a mere 537 votes in the most controversial U.S. presidential election in history.
Feeney had long been a voice in Florida GOP politics. He was gubernatorial candidate Jeb Bush's running mate in 1994, a race in which Democratic incumbent Lawton Chiles defeated Bush. Chiles once referred to Feeney as "the David Duke of Florida politics."
In 2002, Feeney asked Curtis if he could develop a touch screen voting machine "flip flop" program. According to Curtis, Feeney asked him, "Can you write a program to flip votes around on touch screen machines?"
Curtis said Feeney wanted the program to merely reduce votes in heavily Democratic areas and flip Republican votes to 51 percent and keep Democrat votes to 49 percent. Curtis added that Feeney "did not want to win by a lot." In return, Curtis said Feeney offered him "big jobs." Curtis's main tasks at Yang were to develop the Florida DOT's Electronic Document Management System. He also worked on the Project Pipeline Information System at another one of Yang's major clients, Exxon Mobil's Coral Gables facility.
Curtis said he developed the voting program and eventually handed off his prototype to Feeney. The program was also reviewed by Curtis's senior coder, Hai Lin (Henry) Nee, who according to Florida Department of Transportation sources, was an illegal alien working in the United States.
According Curtis, not only did Nee review the vote switching program code but he constantly downloaded sensitive data to his computer from NASA's computers. Nee, according to Curtis, moonlighted at an Orlando company called Azure Systems, described by The Orlando Sentinel as a "three person engineering firm" and one of a number of companies linked to Ting Ih-Hsu, a former Lockheed Martin employee.
At the same time Nee was reviewing Yang's vote switching program, he was also being investigated by U.S. federal investigators for illegally shipping Hellfire missile parts to China. Oddly, although U.S. law enforcement agents had put Nee and his associates under surveillance for illegal exports of technology to China in 1999, he and his colleagues were not arrested until March of this year.
Curtis claimed that Yang's corporate bosses stressed that the company had "unlimited" sources of money that came "mostly" from China. According to Florida DOT employees, House Speaker Feeney pressured their agency to give money to Yang for nonexistent software. The sources also revealed that Feeney was aware that Yang was employing a number of illegal aliens on State of Florida and federal contracts.
Feeney's ties to Yang paralleled similar close ties to NASA. Feeney's wife Ellen has worked as an engineer for NASA's Kennedy Space Center since 1985. Jeb Bush ensured that Florida's 24th Congressional District was redrawn so that Feeney would have an easy time in his 2002 race against Democratic opponent Harry Jacobs.
According to Florida state officials, who spoke on the condition anonymity, 500 Yang employees at the Kennedy Space Center were paid for their time when they agreed to picket against Jacobs. In addition, NASA administrator Sean O'Keefe, according to the same sources, lobbied extensively for Feeney within NASA. In addition, O'Keefe and his close friend and former Pentagon boss, Vice President Dick Cheney, made campaign appearances for Feeney at the Kennedy Space Center.
Feeney's close ties to Jeb Bush and Cheney paid off. In 2002, he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in a race that also saw the re-election of Jeb Bush. Early in "vote switch's" development stages, Feeney had told Curtis that he wanted the program "made to control Palm Beach" in 2002.
Palm Beach County's Election Supervisor was still the controversial Theresa LePore, nicknamed "Madam Butterfly," who designed the infamous "butterfly ballots" in the 2000 election. LePore had once been an employee of Saudi multi-billionaire Adnan Khashoggi, a Saudi link that is tied to a huge multi-billion tranche of money distributed throughout off-shore trusts, accounts, and corporations with interlocking directorships that are controlled by Bush interests in Houston.
It was this Bush-controlled money cache, originating in the East, and known in Houston by the name "Five Star" and other cryptonyms that was, according to U.S. intelligence insiders, used to fund the rigging of the 2004 election.
When he arrived in Congress, Feeney was given a seat on the House Science and Technology Committee, which oversees NASA's operations. Feeney was also appointed to the important House Finance and Judiciary Committees.
He was also given a clean bill of ethical health by Florida's Ethics Commission, a panel that has a Republican majority.
After Feeney's ascension to Congress, Yang's questionable billing activities with its Florida DOT contract came to the attention of Ray C. Lemme, a seasoned senior investigator with the Florida DOT Inspector General's Office and a combat veteran of the Vietnam War.
Lemme had a lot of evidence to suspect that Yang was overbilling the DOT for "millions." After discovering Yang's dirty laundry, Curtis went to work for the DOT. Mavis Georgalis, the DOT's contracting officer for the Yang contract, was also aware of improprieties with the contract. As a result of pressure from the Florida State House, both Curtis and Georgalis were eventually fired by the DOT because of their complaints about the Yang contract. Someone was obviously trying to send Curtis a message when, on August 14, 2002, he discovered that someone poisoned his pet Pomeranian dog, Emily. Lemme was forced to stop his official investigation of Yang for similar reasons. However, he decided to continue an "unofficial" investigation of Yang and its practices on the side.
It was a fateful decision.
According to DOT employees familiar with the Yang case, Lemme was aware that it was Jeb Bush who personally shut down his investigation of Yang.
According to DOT employees familiar with the Yang case, Lemme was aware that it was Jeb Bush who personally shut down his investigation of Yang.
Lemme also leaked details concerning his investigation to the Daytona Beach News Journal. The investigator had previously requested a full audit of the Yang contract with the DOT, a request that was denied. Lemme also became aware of something else outside the framework of the DOT contract—that Yang had been involved in producing a prototype vote switching program for use with touch screen voting machines and that Tom Feeney was in on the scam.
The last time Clint Curtis spoke to Lemme, he remembers the silver haired investigator excited about where his case was leading. Lemme told Curtis that the cover up of Yang was coming from "as high up as I could imagine" and that he had "proof" that was "shocking."
On Sunday, June 29, 2003, evidence indicates that Lemme drove from Tallahassee to Valdosta, Georgia, the home of Moody Air Force Base.
A motel receipt indicated that Lemme checked in at the Knight's Inn off Interstate 75 at 6:49 p.m. Lemme's wife said that her husband left home for work on Monday, June 30, at 5:15 a.m., an hour earlier than usual. According to a Leon County Sheriff's report, Lemme's wife said she received a voice message after she returned home at 6:45 p.m. on Monday.
The message was from her husband's supervisor, Bob Clift, who informed her that earlier in the day, at 6:15 a.m., Lemme called into work, left a message, and said he would not be coming to work that day. Clift said he was checking up on Ray Lemme. Mrs. Lemme called Clift and told him that her husband was not at home.
Mrs. Lemme told police that her husband was working on a "big case." Mrs. Lemme filed a missing person report with the Leon County, Sheriff's Office. Clift later determined that Ray Lemme made his earlier call to work at 6:15 a.m., one hour after he supposedly left his home for work, from a pay phone at the junction of Interstate 10 and Highway 1 in Jefferson County, Florida. Shortly after 11:00 a.m. on Tuesday, July 1, the maid assigned to clean Lemme's room—132—received no answer when she knocked.
The door was locked. There was no response when the maid called the room's telephone. The hotel manager then called the police.
The following is from the Valdosta Police Detective Report filed by Detective Craig Spencer and dated July 1, 2003: "On July 1, 2003 at approximately 1330 hours, I received a page advising me to be en route to Knights Inn at 2110 West Hill Avenue in reference to an unattended death." When Spencer and other police officers and detectives arrived at the motel, the manager told them that the occupant of Room 132, Ray Lemme, was to have checked out by 11a.m. The officers yelled through the slightly ajar door but received no answer and they discovered the upper swing latch was locked.
The officers used a special tool provided by the motel to open the swing latch lock. Spencer said that one of the officers entered the room and found a suicide note and then proceeded to the bathroom where Lemme was found dead in the bathtub.
Police also discovered that the inside of Lemmes's left elbow—the cubital tunnel—was slashed. There were spurts of blood on the wall but no blood found on the floor. A belt possibly used as a tourniquet and a double- edged straight razor blade were found on the side of the tub. A bath towel was unfolded and neatly placed on the floor next to the tub.
Later on July 1, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation Crime Laboratory in Moultrie informed the Valdosta Police that based on the "suicide" details, no autopsy would be performed on Lemme. Unlike Florida, Georgia does not perform mandatory autopsies.
A doctor, with 25 years' clinical experience, who was interviewed for this story claimed that the circumstances of Lemme's death appeared to him to be a classic "mob hit." If the Leon County Sheriff missing person report is to be believed, it is clear that someone other than Lemme checked into the Valdosta motel on Sunday evening using his name.
Clearly, the Leon County Sheriff's report contains a number of details that directly conflict with facts found in the Valdosta Police report. In addition, the Lowndes County, Georgia, Coroner's report fails to indicate an estimated time of death based on a full medical examination—it surmised that the time of death was the same time as indicated on the suicide note: 8:10 a.m. on July 1.
An empty manila folder and a blank legal pad notebook were found on the hotel room's desk along with an undated and unsigned suicide note written on lined paper, which lacked any identifiable fingerprints, from Lemme's day planner.
The note merely contained the time 8:10 a.m. with the following notation: "I love my family (family underlined once) with all my heart. I am sorry.
I am depressed and in pain. Mary Ann (Lemme's wife), I love you." ("I love you" underlined twice). It was certainly not indicative of a person who was ecstatic that he was finally going to nail a long investigation that involved vote rigging, overbilling, and fraud abetted by the very top political leadership in Tallahassee. Interestingly, the last number on Lemme's pager (an 850 960-XXXX) ended with the number "911."
It is also interesting that Lemme's watch, when discovered by the police, was stopped at 12:34 p.m. on June 30–a possible indication that Lemme was trying to convey the time of a possible in extremis situation. Also, Lemme's Florida driver's license was in his room while his wallet was in the glove box of his car, which was parked in front of the room.
Two motel receipts were found in Lemme's room by the police. One was a check-in receipt dated June 29 and timed at 6:44 p.m. The other was a receipt, without a notation of check-in or check-out, dated June 30 and timed at 6:54 a.m. A witness told police that Lemme's car was parked in front of his room on the afternoon of June 30.
Sergeant Eugene Bell of the Valdosta Police Department interviewed a 39-year old female guest who was staying in Room 236 over the weekend. She and her daughter noticed three men standing in the parking lot across from Lemme's room at 8 a.m. on the morning of July 1.
The behavior of the men made the guest suspicious enough that the woman initially believed the men were engaged in a drug deal. According to the police report, the camera used to photograph the crime scene was later discovered to have a defect in the flash memory card.
The defect resulted in no usable photographs being submitted with the official police report.
Lemme was no stranger to Florida politics.
Lemme was no stranger to Florida politics.
His wife, Mary Ann, worked as a secretary for Martha Walters Barnett, a partner with the politically-connected Holland & Knight law firm in Tallahassee, where she specializes in campaign finance and election law and government contracts. Another Holland & Knight partner, Ginny Myrick, was appointed by Jeb Bush as the vice chair of the Florida Community Trust, a state land acquisition and grant program. Although officially a bipartisan law firm, even Democrats working for Holland & Knight largely support Jeb Bush.
In addition, Bill McBride, Bush's Democratic opponent in the 2002 gubernatorial race and a Holland & Knight partner who had defeated former Attorney General Janet Reno in the Democratic primary amid reports of voting irregularities from around the state, commented that his race against Bush "may be the Democrats' race to lose."
The NASA connection to the money trail that is linked to the development of the vote switching program is of particular note. When the first sketchy details of the vote switching operation emerged, a Houston-controlled money tranche associated with an offshore entity called Five Star Trust, registered in the Isle of Man, was reported by high-level intelligence sources familiar with past Bush-related covert activities to be behind the operation.
Five Star has been connected by these informed sources to have originated in 1983, when deposed Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos, Saudi billionaire Adnan Khashoggi, and then-Vice President George H. W. Bush were allegedly looking for a repository for an estimated $3 billion in looted Philippine gold and gems.
Since that time, Five Star's accounts are said to funnel more funds from Saudi Arabia as well as cash reserves hidden away in offshore artificial shells by Enron before it collapsed. What is not yet certain is whether Sean O'Keefe, the NASA administrator and close Cheney friend who supported Feeney's and Yang's activities in Florida, facilitated the transfer of Five Star funds from Houston to Cape Canaveral using contract vehicles of both the Johnson and Kennedy Space Centers to disburse the funds to the principal players.
A NASA insider in Texas said he has long suspected large amounts of money have been moved into the United States and that these transfers involved NASA and Saudi and Chinese money sources.
There is additional information that the election rigging principals connected to the State of Florida and Jeb Bush may have also tried to use contractors tied closely to state contracts to parlay the touch screen software into Maine, which has proportional distribution of its electoral votes by congressional district, and Ohio, the key state in 2004.
The information was provided by insiders in Tallahassee who are close to offices involved in procurement by the state government.
Sources close to U.S. intelligence pointed to a $29.6 million check supposedly issued on October 22, 2004, by Laurentian Bank in Montreal, Canada, that was rumored by intelligence circles to have been used to pay for the technicians who developed the software to rig the election.
The computer voting machine technicians and maintenance personnel involved with the rigging were reported to have included Russians, Mexicans, and Brazilians.
According to Laurentian Bank, the check, a U.S. dollar "money order," is a bogus instrument tied to Nigerian scamming activities. Laurentian Bank said that a U.S. dollar money order would never be for amounts over $1,000 and any higher amount would be in the form of a bank draft that would require the signature of two senior bank officers.
In addition, the bank would never use a cell phone number (514-588-5569) on their checks. The payer on the "check," Equity Financial Trust of Toronto, is said by the Canadian Fraud Office to be involved with Nigerian scammers.
In fact, the Canadian Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions reports that Equity Financial Trust, Toronto, Ontario "may be violating provisions of the Bank Act (Canada) or other Canadian financial institution regulations" and "may also be conducting unauthorized banking transactions in the United States."
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ATOFINA Chemicals, Inc., was formed in June 2000 following the merger of TotalFina and Elf Aquitaine. ATOFINA Chemicals was formerly Elf Atochem North America, which was formed at the end of 1989 through the merger of Atochem, Inc., M&T Ch Kathie Bracy's Blog: June 10, 2007
Charlie Crist signed the nation’s first Iran-divestment bill into law, and the California ...... Total SA (Formerly Total Fina Elf S.A ) TOT Equity Yes 88.6
http://morewhat.com/wordpress/?cat=3&paged=2
Governor Charlie Crist has sought to expand energy research programs at ...... says France’s state-controlled TotalFinaElf is poised to win contracts to ...
Home
... involvement of Florida’s Attorney General Charlie Crist in the election ...... Houston-based energy company Conoco, in partnership with Total Fina Elf, ...www.exorthodoxforchrist.com/ - 714k - Cached - Similar pages
Charlie Crist signed the nation’s first Iran-divestment bill into law, and the California ...... Total SA (Formerly Total Fina Elf S.A ) TOT Equity Yes 88.6
http://morewhat.com/wordpress/?cat=3&paged=2
Governor Charlie Crist has sought to expand energy research programs at ...... says France’s state-controlled TotalFinaElf is poised to win contracts to ...
Home
... involvement of Florida’s Attorney General Charlie Crist in the election ...... Houston-based energy company Conoco, in partnership with Total Fina Elf, ...www.exorthodoxforchrist.com/ - 714k - Cached - Similar pages
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Police are investigating a possible double murder and suicide in an Orlando, Florida, residence owned by the former Executive Director of the Georgia Republican Party.
The Orange County Sheriff was called to 2420 Hickory Oak Blvd. in Orlando early Thursday. There they found three dead white men and two live dogs. The men may have been dead since Tuesday.
The home where they were found dead was owned by a political consultant/strategist of Rep. Tom Feeney (R-FL), the one who worked on the Congressman's smear campaign against vote-rigging whistleblower Clint Curtis last year. More details on that campaign below.
Feeney describes Gonzalez as "a born political consultant." On commenting on the news, Feeney said of Gonzalez, "He was an adviser and strategist for me and became a very good friend."
Detectives haven't revealed exactly how the three were killed, save that it was through foul play.
Detectives haven't revealed exactly how the three were killed, save that it was through foul play.
At least two of the men lived at the residence. Investigators told local media that they found firearms and signs of a struggle inside the home.
Detectives also indicated that they felt they might be looking at a murder-suicide.
The address where this crime took place was also the Florida address for The Strategum Group, a political consulting outfit run by Ralph Gonzalez. A portion of Gonzalez's bio from The Strategum Group's website:
The address where this crime took place was also the Florida address for The Strategum Group, a political consulting outfit run by Ralph Gonzalez. A portion of Gonzalez's bio from The Strategum Group's website:
Prior to founding the Strategum Group, Ralph served at the Republican Party of Florida’s House Campaign Division, as Executive Director of the Georgia Republican Party, and is a veteran of dozens of campaigns across Florida, from Mayoral Races to Congressional.
He also has international political experience, helping to manage a campaign on the Island of St. Maarten.
Ralph Gonzalez's national and international political experience, his experience and understanding of the political and legislative process, in conjunction with his unique political instincts, has made him a first class asset to political candidates and organizations.
Ralph was born in Miami, speaks fluent Spanish, and currently resides in Orlando.
Records filed with the Florida Division of Corporations indicated that Gonzalez founded Strategum in 2003 as a domestic profit corporation.
Ralph was born in Miami, speaks fluent Spanish, and currently resides in Orlando.
Records filed with the Florida Division of Corporations indicated that Gonzalez founded Strategum in 2003 as a domestic profit corporation.
Gonzalez maintained Georgia ties. Republican Congressman Tom Price from Roswell, GA, was one of several politicos who gave testimonials for Strategum published on the Group's website.
Another testimonial for Strategum was given by controversial Florida Republican Tom Feeney, who represents Florida House District 24. Feeney's quote on the Group's site read:
Another testimonial for Strategum was given by controversial Florida Republican Tom Feeney, who represents Florida House District 24. Feeney's quote on the Group's site read:
Ralph Gonzalez was a key part of my team at House Campaigns when I was Florida Speaker of the House as well as my congressional race.
The team at Strategum Group have been valued advisors on key issues in my district. They are a huge asset to any candidate or organization.
There simply is no one better at strategy and analysis. I am proud to work with Ralph and the Strategum Group!
Feeney's bio on Wikipedia points out that he was once called one of the "20 Most Corrupt Members of Congress" by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW). Brad Friedman has doggedly tracked many of the alleged instances of corruption connected with Feeney.
The Orlando Sentinel indicated that Feeney was not Strategum's only controversial client:
Last year, Gonzales worked on the campaign of then-state representative Sheri McInvale, who was indicted last week after prosecutors say she fraudulently sought taxpayer reimbursement for a newsletter.
Last year, Gonzales worked on the campaign of then-state representative Sheri McInvale, who was indicted last week after prosecutors say she fraudulently sought taxpayer reimbursement for a newsletter.
Whatever they did for their clients, Strategum was expensive. The Sentinel reported in July of 2005 that one failed candidate for Orlando mayor had paid the consultants $115,000 for "three weeks of work."
Ralph Gonzalez's career seems to have always put him one degree of separation away from infamous former lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
When Ralph Reed was elected chairman of the Georgia Republican Party in 2001 [link], two of the party's executive directors were Todd Schnick and Ralph Gonzalez. When Gonzalez filed an annual report for Strategum with the State of Florida Division of Corporations in January, 2007, Schnick was listed as one of his business partners.
(Note: Todd Schnick is a name that you might remember if you believe the 2000 presidential election was stolen, and that said theft occurred in Florida.)
Ralph Reed has been associated with Abramoff since at least 1981.
Tom Feeney's connections with Abramoff have been well-documented by Brad Friedman. This link goes to just one example.
Tom Feeney's connections with Abramoff have been well-documented by Brad Friedman. This link goes to just one example.
The Orlando Sentinel has confirmed that one of the men found dead in the home in Orlando was indeed the former Executive Director of the Georgia Republican Party, Ralph Gonzalez.
If you recall the incredibly contentious campaign between Clint Curtis and Tom Feeney, you may recall this smear website launched by Team Feeney: CrazyClintCurtis.com.
The amateurish site was expressly designed to make Curtis look like a tinfoil-hat wearing loon. The assumption at the time was that Feeney's consultants were behind it. It should be no surprise then that they probably were (following info found via the fantastic robtex.com):
strategumusa.com (site for Ralph Gonzalez's Strategum Group)
domains sharing mailservers ,accudatatech.com,aerobatic.ws,alitel.net,aznedge.netbegovich.com,bioquem.com,brightwaterstech.com,bryantech.net,cougarcorp.netcraftylounge.com,crazyclintcurtis.com
Plenty of unrelated websites share mailservers. These particular URLs sharing the exact same first 10 URLs just seems a bit too telling.
strategumusa.com (site for Ralph Gonzalez's Strategum Group)
domains sharing mailservers ,accudatatech.com,aerobatic.ws,alitel.net,aznedge.netbegovich.com,bioquem.com,brightwaterstech.com,bryantech.net,cougarcorp.netcraftylounge.com,crazyclintcurtis.com
Plenty of unrelated websites share mailservers. These particular URLs sharing the exact same first 10 URLs just seems a bit too telling.
The Orlando Sentinel has reported the names of the other two men found dead in the home at 2420 Hickory Oak Blvd.: Gonzalez's roommate David Abrami and a friend named Robert Drake.
Central Florida News 13 suggested in this article that Drake may have murdered Abrami and Gonzalez before committing suicide.
Central Florida News 13 suggested in this article that Drake may have murdered Abrami and Gonzalez before committing suicide.
Abrami, in 1992, was vice president of the Central Florida Young Republican Club. That group made the news in November that year because they'd planned a weekend turkey shoot [link --- you'll need to scroll down to the middle of the page.
In and of itself this wasn't news. The fact that they wanted to use enlarged photos of then incoming president Bill Clinton as targets was news. The Secret Service, naturally, vetoed the idea.
Abrami also had a MySpace page he'd been maintaining since 2006. His last login was two weeks ago. There wasn't much there, and only one friend. Had he taken the page down? Does it matter? For all we know, it might.
Another interesting note about David Abrami: according to this article published 10 years ago in the Orlando Business Journal, Abrami at one time was an employee of another Orlando-area politcal consultant/publicist, Doug Guetzloe.
Things must have changed quite a bit in the decade since. Guetzloe made comments here about Strategum and Gonzalez (if they were indeed made by him) in 2006. His attitude seemed to indicate he was no fan of Ralph Gonzalez or The Strategum Group.
Florida Today published an article this morning titled, "Lovers' fight may have sparked 3 deaths."
Who the "lovers" were is not clear.
Who the "lovers" were is not clear.
A Republican Party consultant is one of three men found dead in a Central Florida home Thursday in an apparent double murder-suicide possibly sparked by a lovers' quarrel, according to detectives.
If said lovers were among the three dead men, no one will miss the irony of Abrami and Gonzalez having ties to conservative Republican campaigns for the last 15 years or more.
Towleroad is now reporting that "All language about a 'lovers' fight' has since mysteriously disappeared from the report." at Florida Today.
Another interesting note about David Abrami: according to this article published 10 years ago in the Orlando Business Journal, Abrami at one time was an employee of another Orlando-area politcal consultant/publicist, Doug Guetzloe.
They have grabbed a screen shot of the original headline and story, however.
Gonzalez' Strategum Group was apparently behind all of Feeney's 2006 mailings as part of his smear campaign against Clint Curtis. One such mailing which included doctored photos of Curtis and referenced an article I had written for Hustler concerning the still-unexplained mysterious death --- in Georgia --- of Ray Lemme of the Florida Inspector General's office. Lemme had been investigating Curtis' complaints about Feeney and Yang Enterprises Inc. where both men worked in 2000, and where Feeney alleged asked Curtis to create vote rigging software.
Local residents complained to the media about receiving "pornography" in their mailbox from the Feeney campaign, as reported by local TV outlets at the time. We originally reported on the matter here, including a link to the video report.
A portion of that mailing is seen at right.
Feeney is quoted discussing his friend in an AP report today .
Feeney is quoted discussing his friend in an AP report today .
Raymond Lemme Crime Scene Photos Said Not to Exist are Published on Net!
Photos, Evidence and FDOT Involvement with Valdosta, GA Police Raise New Questions in Mysterious Death!
Photos, Evidence and FDOT Involvement with Valdosta, GA Police Raise New Questions in Mysterious Death!
Texas to Florida: White House-linked clandestine operation paid for "vote switching" software
