If you've followed this blog you know that we've been hounding the American Issues Project--a shadowy group that seems to have no other purpose than to attack Senator Barack Obama with unsubstantiated smears. No issue agenda. No record or history of advocacy work.

Today the group Democracy 21 filed a complaint with the FEC naming American Issues Project (and a Democratic group). The complaint alleges that AIP should be regulated as a "political committee" and subject to contribution limits and disclosure requirements.

Central to Democracy 21's complaint is the fact that AIP has no record or history of non-political advocacy work. They write on their website:

“AIP’s $2.86 million expenditure in August 2008 on an ‘express
advocacy’ ad means that AIP must demonstrate it spent at least more
than $2.86 million during 2008 on activities that are not campaign
related in order to establish that its ‘major purpose’ is not to
influence federal elections, “ according to Wertheimer.

To date it is hard to find what other activity AIP has engaged in give them $2.86 million of non-political spending. We'll keep an eye on this. Check out the following for more reading.

Read more about the complaint from Democracy 21 >>

Report on WashingtonPost.com about the complaint >>

Report from the Associated Press >>

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."

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.

Irony of ironies. Harold Simmons, the Texas billionaire and McCain fundraiser behind the incendiary ads attacking Senator Barack Obama, is divisive even in his own family.

It turns out that at least one of Simmons' daughters, Serena Connolly, is a max-out donor to both Senators Clinton and Obama. She wrote her first check to Senator Obama in the 2nd quarter of 2007.

Another Simmons daughter, Lisa Epstein, has donated to Democrats in the past.

Neither of the daughters has supported smear campaigns like their father. And, it has been reported they have a lot of disagreements with their father over politics.

Both Ms. Connolly and Ms. Epstein are directors of the foundation named after their father--the Harold Simmons Foundation. As it turns out, the foundation supports a lot of what some would call liberal causes: helping immigrants, campaign reform, prison reform, handgun control, reproductive rights. 

Check out more on the Harold Simmons Foundation >>

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.