Jim Webb speaks at the launch of his GOTV effort and addresses Sen. Allen’s new interest in literary criticism …
This one’s going to be down to the wire.
RNC Chief Ken Mehlman accepted political contributions from gay porn king?
Last week, you’ll remember, the RNC, headed by Ken Mehlman, was running that race-baiting ‘bimbo’ ad against Rep. Harold Ford (D) down in Tennessee. One of the barbs in that ad was the claim that Ford had taken political contributions 
from “porn movie producers.”
But it seems there is plenty of porn movie producer money to go around.
It turns out that the Republican National Committee is a regular recipient of political contributions from Nicholas T. Boyias, the owner and CEO of Marina Pacific Distributors, one of the largest producers and distributors of gay porn in the United States. This recent article on Marina Pacific’s new marketing campaign form XBiz, a porn industry trade sheet, notes that, in addition to producing its own material, the “company acts as a distribution house to hundreds of lines, mostly gay, 40 of which can be purchased only through MPD.”
The company actually seems to be a trendsetter in the industry. As Boyias recently noted, “We have always modeled ourselves after a Fortune-style company. They are the models of exceptional customer service. We have formed strategic alliances with our vendors and customers alike, offering them tools and marketing to assist them in succeeding with their business models. Our one-on-one interpersonal relationships have never been duplicated in the distribution industry.”
Some recent releases include “Fire in the Hole“, “Flesh and Boners“, even a “Velvet Mafia” series.
FEC.gov lists Boyias as contributing to the RNC three times in 2004 and two times in 2005. The NRCC got a little too. But only $250.
The FEC records list Boyias as either “self employed” or as owner and CEO of NTB Inc. But the California Secretary of State’s website lists Boyias’ NTB, Inc as located at 7077 Vineland Ave, which turns out to be the same address where Marina Pacific is located. So I’m pretty sure we’re dealing with the same guy.
So, Ken Mehlman, for porn producer money before he was against it, I guess.
(ed.note: Let me say, for the record, that I consider pornography not only a legal but a morally unobjectionable product. People in that industry have as much right to participate in the political process as anyone else. And it’s difficult for the head of a political committee or a candidate in a political campaign to know the background of every contributor. But hypocrisy blows. And on this issue, as on others, Ken Mehlman’s a hypocrite.)
TPM Reader RC, in Maryland:
Just got off the phone from a push poll for Michael Steele. My
favorite question was (paraphrasing) “Do you favor carrying out
medical experiments on unborn babies?” A close second was “Do you
want to have your taxes raised?”
Anyone else hearing the “medical experiments on unborn babies” charge?
Ha. A slap in the face from Rep. Barbara Cubin (R-Big Money) …
Fun viewing. And a lot of fun for Dems if that race isn’t decided by the time polls close on Tuesday.
The president declared himself confident that Republicans would sweep to victory and maintain their stranglehold on both houses of a Congress that’s done nothing but rubberstamp Bush’s war policies and Republican efforts to enrich their fat-cat donors and themselves, of course.
If he’s right and that’s the result of the Nov. 7 elections, then the American people will finally have fulfilled H.L. Mencken’s prophecy that we’d continue choosing the lowest common denominator until, in the end, we get precisely the government we deserve.
Meantime, Vice President Dick Cheney confirmed that some of the senior al-Qaeda terrorists in our custody have been subjected to “water-boarding,” a torture that brings the victim within a hair of drowning and suffocation. Cheney declared that it was a “no-brainer.” My thoughts exactly: Only people with no brains opt to torture a captive in violation of domestic and international law.
This unseemly circus and its clowns in Congress can’t go away fast enough and with enough dishonor and disgrace to suit the circumstances. Their place in America’s history is secure: They will go down as the worst administration and the worst Congress we’ve ever had. Period.
They deserve to lose both the House and the Senate on Nov. 7, and the White House in 2008. They bullied their way into a war that they thought would be a slam-dunk and then so bungled things that the only superpower left in the world has been humbled and hobbled in a world that they’ve made more dangerous for us.
Thanks, guys. You’ve done a heckuva job. We won’t forget it.
That about sums it up.
Fields of Fire, one of James Webb’s books that George Allen has been attacking as obscene, is actually on the Marine Corps’ reading list for professional development.
Missouri Senate race deadlocked: Talent(R)–47% v. McCaskill(D)–47%
Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee pumps $1 million into race to knock off Rep. Chris Shays (R-CT).
LA Times: Even if Dems win both Houses, Rove will still have given “virtuoso” performance.
More on those push-poll calls about medical experiments on the unborn. Several TPM readers in Maryland have reported robocalls from Michael Steele’s Senate campaign with a “poll” question along the lines of “do you believe that medical research should be allowed on unborn babies?”
TPM Reader PR, in Maryland:
I got the same “polling” call. It starts out asking who you are going to vote for, then has a series of questions, including the medical experiment question. Also asked whether you supported marriage as being between a man and a woman, do you want your taxes raised and then asks at the end, based on what you now know do you support Michael Steele. . . .
A slightly different version of the script is reported by TPM Reader JA:
After asking you who you’re going to vote for, it asks “do you want your own taxes raised or lowered?” Then it tells you that Cardin has voted to raise your taxes and will do so again. It follows with “do you believe the words ‘under God’ should be in the pledge of allegiance?” It tells you Cardin voted to remove them, which I assume is false. Then it goes straight to the gutter and asks “do you support medical research experiments on unborn babies?” Of course, it then tells you Cardin is for this. It finishes by asking again who you’re going to vote for.
At least one Maryland reader says his call did not include any reference to medical experiments on the unborn. Some reports we’ve gotten say the call was the Steele campaign; others say it was a group called “Common Sense Maryland.” Still others say the sponsor was “Common Sense Ohio.”
In Tennessee, TPM Reader LK reports that a group called “Common Sense Tennessee,” which appears to be an outgrowth of “Common Sense Ohio,” is making robocalls on behalf of Republican Bob Corker in the Senate race:
It starts off asking are you for Corker for for Ford, then it runs thru a list of push poll questions; not verbatim but the substance below:
— do you favor giving the same rights to terrorists as to americans?
— are you pro life?
— do you support the NRA and how it lets us have all the guns we want to?
— do you think we have a problem with illegal aliens?Asks again are you for Corker or for Ford.
A TPM reader in Virginia says that the George Allen campaign is using a a similar question in its push-poll calls: “Do you favor carrying out medical experiments on a dead fetus?”
Then there’s TPM Reader LH:
Yes, there are other campaigns doing push polls asking that question. I have received a poll asking if I agreed with medical experiments on unborn babies. The call was in support of Dick DeVos. I live in Michigan’s 2nd Congressional District. I simply told the woman that as a person living with Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma since the age of eight, I fully support medical experiments on cells that were artificially created in a lab for the sole purpose of curing disease and saving millions of lives. I also told her I personally found the pro-lifer’s stance offensive because I am alive, and why do they think an artificially created lump of cells more important that me? My parent’s were married for years before they had me. I WAS a planned pregnancy, my parent’s created me naturally, just the way God intended. Why shouldn’t I be saved? Why do they feel MY life is unimportant? I finished the call by informing her that my parent’s love me, they have already lost one child to murder, real murder, the kind that involved a criminal investigation and would take serious umbrage with anyone who would want me to die too. I asked her why didn’t she believe my parent’s have suffered enough, why she felt my parent’s need to lose another child and hung up the phone.
A lot of money is being spent on robocalls in these last days of the campaign, so keep us posted on what you’re hearing.