You probably remember how earlier this month Newt Gingrich somehow managed to have his 527 Group award its “Entrepreneur of the Year” award to porn exec Allison Vivas and invite her to an “intimate event” with Newt himself. Vivas was game. But Gingrich’s group soon rescinded the award.
Today we learned there’s been another misunderstanding. Gingrich’s outfit, American Solutions for Winning the Future, gave a new “Entrepreneur of the Year” award to Dawn Rizos, owner of The Lodge, which the Dallas Morning News calls “one of the best-known gentlemen’s clubs in Dallas.”
Alas, again, the offer has been rescinded. But TPM’s Ben Frumin got a chance to talk to Rizos to get her take on getting the Newt jilt.
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Sarah Palin’s contribution to American letters is already at No. 3 on Amazon’s bestseller list based on pre-orders alone. That and the day’s other political news in the TPMDC Morning Roundup.
Yesterday we told you about the creepily named American Police Force, the mysterious security company which had secured a ten year contract to run an unused but super-expensive prison in tiny Hardin, Montana but refused to say what they were going to do with it and proceeded to swagger around town like Solider of Fortune pin-ups.
There were conspiracy theories aplenty and a lot of legitimate suspicion that APF was a cover or proxy for some bigger and more well-known security outfit that didn’t want to reveal its name.
So who runs APF? Good news! A convicted thief and sometime real estate swindler with about a dozen aliases from Orange County, California.
Back a few years ago when I was doing a lot of reporting on security companies working in Iraq, I was always amused, surprised, sometimes forced to laugh out loud at how often it seemed that the security company was just a shell offering to do any number of things they’d never done before but would be happy to figure out how to do if you gave them a contract. And when we were poking around in the background of American Police Force, the gonzo security outfit which took over that prison up in Montana, it seemed like pretty much the same story. Only to an almost infinitely more comical degree.
Among the services? Surveilling your cheating spouse, security for convoys in Iraq, rescuing kidnapping victims. And if rescuing kidnapping victims ain’t your bag, APF will also kidnap people and hold them for ransom for you. (This latter part may actually just be a matter of sloppy writing. But with APF, who knows. They want to serve your needs; whatever they might be.) Sort of like working either the management or labor side of Labor Law. Similarly, they’ll either provide protection from WMDs or provide you with WMDs. Whichever side you want to play. Also, “covert pregnancy testing.”
It goes on and on. Rachel Slajda has the story.
Meet Becky Shay, 20-year vet reporter for the Billings Gazette who was covering the American Police Force story until Thursday night, when she abruptly resigned to sign on to be APF’s new Director of Public Relations.
The Secret Service is writing off the Facebook poll on whether Obama should be killed as a dumb prank by a juvenile who will not be prosecuted.
US Attorney firing scandal alum, Sara Taylor, signs on with Tim Pawlenty prez campaign.
Never thought Big Bird would go birther on us. But then I’ve been surprised before.