The Washington Post reports that swift boat donor Sam Wyly is sitting out the 2008 election smears business too. With T. Boone Pickens also out, some of the heaviest hitters on the Right are looking for other projects.

Wyly is one of the top donors to Republican causes over the last few decades.

When asked about funding Right-Wing groups he told the Associated Press, "I've done that, and other people can do that now."

Yet another right-wing group is emerging from the shadows. The newest group, Leadership for America's Future, plans to attack the "themes" associated with Sen. Barack Obama's campaign. The New York Sun reports:

Republican political strategists in California are setting up a new political organization which hopes to run television commercials undermining the central themes of Senator Obama's presidential campaign while underscoring the strengths of his Republican opponent, Senator McCain of Arizona.

Leadership for America's Future was formally created on Thursday by a Sacramento, Calif.-based attorney, Thomas Hiltachk, according to a form registering the so-called 527 group with the Internal Revenue Service

The group has set up a website and video with the hope of attracting donors. More from the Sun:

"It's not always the world we dream of. It can be belligerent and unpredictable, where an unsure response can have lasting consequences for generations," the announcer says over a montage that includes a plane crashing into the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001 and video of an American flag fluttering at the gutted site after the terrorist attacks. "No matter how eloquently spoken, hoping for change won't change the world. Only the strength of experience can do that."

Donors previously associated with Hiltachk include Paul Singer, a New York hedge fund manager who supported Mr. Giuliani.

Well, things keep getting interesting. It turns out that the American Issues Project, funded by billionaire McCain fundraiser Howard Simmons, is using copyrighted images owned by a 501c3.

The group, the Free History Project, sent a cease and desist letter to the right-wing group which is broadcasting in Michigan and Ohio. See their letter below.

August 25, 2008

VIA FEDERAL EXPRESS

American Issues Project
301 West Platt Street, Suite #353
Tampa, Florida 33606

Re: Advertisement Entitled “Know Enough?”

To Whom it May Concern:

Keker & Van Nest represents The Free History Project, which owns the copyright on the documentary film The Weather Underground, directed by Sam Green, co-directed by Bill Siegel, and produced by Carrie Lozano.

It has come to our attention that you have made unauthorized use of material from The Weather Underground in your television advertisement entitled “Know Enough?” (“the advertisement”), directly infringing The Free History Project’s copyright in the film. For instance, without requesting permission to do so, you took footage of William Ayers from The Weather Underground and used it in the advertisement. You have thus willfully violated The Free History Project’s intellectual property rights.

As counsel for The Free History Project, I request that you immediately: (1) remove the advertisement from any television station, cable network, or other media outlet where it is currently running; (2) remove the advertisement from the American Issues Project’s website (www.americanissuesproject.org); (3) cease and desist from any and all further distribution of the advertisement or any other work derived from The Weather Underground; (4) cease and desist from any and all further infringement of The Free History Project’s copyright; and (5) deliver to Keker & Van Nest—or destroy—all copies of the advertisement or any other work derived from The Weather Underground.

These demands are made without waiver of the other remedies available to The Free History Project for your copyright infringement. Please also be aware that we intend to notify television stations and cable providers in Ohio and Michigan (where, we understand, the advertisement is running) of our objection to your use of our copyrighted material.

I look forward to a prompt confirmation that you will cease your infringing conduct immediately. However, if you continue to infringe The Free History Project’s copyright, we will pursue all available legal remedies.

Very truly yours,

JOHN W. KEKER

Download a PDF of the letter. Read their press release.

For those of you unfamiliar, John W. Keker is a serious lawyer with a record as a prosecutor and a litigator. In layman's terms: he's a bad ass. Those TV stations should look out.

Campaign finance filings reveal that billionaire Harold Simmons is the sole financier of ads attacking Obama for his relationship with former activist Bill Ayers. Simmons donated the entire $2.8 million that funds the American Issues project, a new group that will continue to release incendiary ads against Obama.

It's no surprise that Simmons would spend millions attacking Obama. Simmons is a max out donor and a bundler to McCain's Presidential Campaign. Texans for Public Justice also reports on the extent of Simmons government interests: "Taxpayers subsidize Simmons sugar prices, bankroll military purchases of his aerospace metals and ultimately pay for the limits that government officials place on his tax and pollution liabilities. President Clinton used the line-item veto to narrowly avert a 1997 loophole for Simmons to dodge $80 million in taxes."

Harold Simmons has a long history of corruption and scandal:

Simmons earned his fortune through hostile takeovers, and his companies have been charged with raiding their workers pension funds to finance such takeover deals. [Source: Washington Post, 5/12/83]

Simmons's NL Industries was found liable for the lead poisoning thousands of children in Rhode Island. The company has also been named as a potentially responsible party for several superfund sites throughout the nation.

Simmons's Waste Control Specialists fought to ship low-level radioactive waste to a West Texas site. Rep. Robert Talton accused company lobbyists of trying to bribe him with a job and $60,000 in donations. Simmons continues seek approval to bury the radioactive waste in Texas, and continues to donate millions in contributions to Texas politicians.

This Texas billionaire is also no stranger to bypassing federal contribution limits. In 2004, he contributed $3 million to Swift Boat Veterans for Truth a group that maliciously attacked Sen. Kerry's service record. In 1993, "the Federal Election Commission fined him $19,800 for exceeding federal contributions limits." In 1997, two of Simmons's daughters alleged in a lawsuit that their father put their names on hundreds of thousands of dollars in contributions. The case was settled for $50 million dollars.

American Issues Project, a new Republican 501(c)4, has started a multi-million dollar smear campaign attacking Presidential Candidate Barack Obama. The group's recent aduses imagery linking Obama to 9-11 and criticizes Obama for his relationship with former Weather Underground member Bill Ayers, despite Obama's denunciation of Weather Underground's crimes in the 1960s.

American Issues Project plans to spend $2.8 million airing the ad, which will be the largest single third-party expenditure this cycle. Spokesman Christian Pinkston says the ad is just the first of a series of things the group will do to target Obama, and indicates that the group has other provocative material that was not included in the ad.

Pinkston has experience producing misleading attacks. His media and consulting firm, The Pinkston Group, did work for the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth in 2004.

News reports point out that the release of the ad matches a recent upswing in the McCain campaign's references to Ayers. American Issues Project's board member, Ed Failor Jr, was previously a paid consultant for McCain's campaign, raising questions about whether this new 501(c)4 is truly independent from the McCain Campaign. Unlike a candidate committee, American Issues Project bypasses campaign finance regulations, and is not required to disclose its donors.

The group initially wanted to air the ad on Fox, but a Fox spokesman said the network declined to run it.

Obama Nation, the anti-Obama attack book written by 9/11 conspiracy theorist Jerome Corsi, has been thoroughly discredited. Nevertheless, it's debuting at #1 on the New York Times best seller list, in no small part due to the bulk orders by right-wing interest groups.

Now, some groups are going even further to promote the book. NPR reports that the National Campaign Fund – a right-wing PAC with affiliated 501(c)3, 501(c) and 527 groups – is collaborating with Corsi to create a series of videos based on the book. The National Campaign Fund is run by Floyd Brown, the creator of the infamous Willie Horton ad that seriously damaged Michael Dukakis' presidential campaign.

Read the full report from NPR here.