Ohio GOP, gwb43.com, georgewbush.com

[DemReadingDU]

The recent stories, diaries and articles surrounding the use of external email servers by senior White House members only scratch the surface. Come along to discover who is behind the dot com twins, georgewbush and gwb43, but be careful not to trip over the line.

At ePluribus Media, we've spent many months investigating the 'virtual real estate' and why the neighbors seem to look so much like each other. The researchers were tipped off, as it were, by a line, or to be more exact, an image of a line: ohgop_index_nline.gif.

As one can pretty much guess from the name, it's an index divider graphic used for the Ohio GOP. That image is one that NewMedia Communications used on a website built for the Ohio GOP. (The CEO of New Media Communications is one Mike Connell; remember that name if you don't already know it.)

full story here...
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/3/27/182647/444

edit to add: Thanks to all the ePluribus Media people

[Atman]

1. So where's KO on this?

Still hasn't reached "the media" yet.

.

[Botany]

2. gwb43.com = Smartech = RNC = bush / Cheney '04

And what company got the job to be the server for the election
data in 2004 from Ken Blackwell? Smartech. So the company "counting the
votes" for Ohio's Sec. of State in 2004 was part of the bush "re-election"
organization.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x467855





Tom DeLay 1/6/05 "So what do these people think? That Karl Rove had a couple of computers
in the basement of the White House flipping votes?" House Floor when a challenge to the certification
of Ohio's 2004 vote happened.

[L. Coyote]

4. WRONG. Ohio counted the votes. SoS posted them on Smarech hosted domain.

The votes are NOT, I repeat NOT, counted by Internet hosting companies. The Internet hosting company, SmarTech, provided the server space to Ohio government. Votes are counted by political jurisdictions and reported to the Ohio SoS. Ohio SoS site could not handle the election night traffic, and paid to utilize SmarTech servers. Ohio SoS controled the domain they utilized.

Let's try to keep the facts right. There is plenty to this story w/o mangling the facts.

[mod mom]

5. but as the photo in Botany's post shows, could there be links with other computers

which might manipulate the data on the way? This is what we need to find out. I believe this might be more than cronyism here.

[mod mom]

9. Is it Ethical to have such close ties with the GOP and the Site offering Election Results?

New Media Communications
www.technomania.com

Major Clients in 2003-2004
George W. Bush (R)
Republican National Committee



By Chris Landers

WASHINGTON, October 30, 2006 — Since starting New Media Communications in his Ohio basement in January 1995, Mike Connell has built his firm into one of the leading Web designers for conservative causes and Republican politicians. That GOP business also has led to significant government accounts for GovTech Solutions, a separate online services company owned by his wife Heather.

-snip

In Ohio, Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell's office paid about $465,000 to GovTech, which redesigned the Web site and worked with the office to present Election Night results in 2004. In 1999, when Blackwell co-chaired the congressional Census Monitoring Board, New Media had won a contract to redesign a bilingual Web site for the board.

more at:

http://www.publicintegrity.org/consultants/default.aspx?act=profiles&pid=10

[L. Coyote]

10. More than cronyism? YES. But, that's no excuse for posting a LIE.

The votes are counted by the Ohio jurisdictions, period!
To state that SmarTech counted the votes is a lie!

The issue in all this is government officals using private domains to conduct government business in an effort to keep private communications required by law to be public and preserved for posterity. When government officials are abusing their power for political purposes in violation of the law, and doing so using e-mail accounts on private political domains to ensure obfuscation of thse actions, that is the crime. Saying that the hosting company used by the domains where that was allegedly accomplished detracts from the true facts. It is a disservice to understanding the real issue and needs to be called out.

[mod mom]

16. Conflict of interest (RNC connect to OH Election Site), Cronyism or more?

Don't you think it is worth investigating just what connections the SOS had on election night '04? As a citizen of Ohio (and this country-where Ohio delivered the presidency) I do?

Just saying...

Of course by friend Botany can certainly clarify for himself.

:hi:

[DemReadingDU]

22. I'm in Ohio too

I've often wondered about the connections Blackwell communicated with in '04.

[Botany]

8. FACTS

The Sec. of State's office compiles the vote data that is reported by the counties.

Ken Blackwell's office said that the server it had could not "handle the traffic"
on election night so they contracted w/ Smartech to host which in turn posted
the data on the Sec. of State's web site.

(So the chief election officer in the State of Ohio had an in house server that
was not up to snuff as far as handling the election data?

Why on earth would the Sec. of State have bought a server that did not have
the capacity to do it's most important job? )

Ken Blackwell along w/ Deb Pryce was chairperson for bush/Cheney 04 in Ohio.

Ken Blackwell met with George W Bush and Karl Rove on 11/2/04.

Ohio SoS controlled the domain they utilized. Although I know very little about
computers it seems to me that raw data from the returns could be analyzed and
"shared with" interested parties before it was posted on it's web site.

Ohio '04 was a death of thousand cuts ..... vote migrations, voter purges prior to
the election, faux voter registrations drives (Nathan Sproul & Associates), disappearing
provisional votes, ballot manipulations, media manipulations (N.Y. Times .... Conspiracy
Dead Enders refuse to accept reality), and God knows what else. Any and all weaknesses
in the integrity of the system was exploited and to me it seems like this was a weakness.

peace

[mod mom]

11. Did Carville Tip Bush Off to Kerry Strategy (Woodward pg 344)

Did Carville Tip Bush Off to Kerry Strategy (Woodward)


By M.J. Rosenberg


-snip

Apparently, Kerry had decided not to concede. There were 250,000 outstanding ballots in Ohio.

So Kerry decides to fight. In fact, he considers going to Ohio to camp out with his voters until there is a recount. This is the last thing the White House needs, especially after Florida 2000.



James Carville gets on the phone with his wife, Mary Matalin, who is at the White House with Bush.

"Carville told her he had some inside news. The Kerry campaign was going to challenge the provisional ballots in Ohio -- perhaps up to 250,000 of them. 'I don't agree with it, Carville said. I'm just telling you that's what they're talking about.'

-snip

http://www.tpmcafe.com/blog/coffeehouse/2006/oct/07/did_carville_tip_bush_off_to_kerry_strategy_woodward

[mod mom]

12. somebody in authority needed to get in touch with J. Kenneth Blackwell

"Matalin does, advising Bush that "somebody in authority needed to get in touch with J. Kenneth Blackwell, the Republican Secretary of State in Ohio who would be in charge of any challenge to the provisional votes." An SOS goes out to Blackwell."

[Botany]

14. and later that morning the # of provisional ballots dropped below .....

.... the bush's margin of victory in the state.

Seems to me that this (using Smartech) was a weakness in the "system"
and every other time where there was a weakness .... Karl Rove & company
exploited it.

But in good news .... Jennifer Brunner is very aware of this "outsourcing"
and will look into it ..... The White House is now so weak that it will not
be able to fight the fire that was Ohio 04 from flaring up again.

[mod mom]

15. The make-up of our courts, esp OH Supreme Court worries me. One only

has to recall the threatened sanctions for a "frivolous" suit to see whose pocket they have allegiance to.

:hi:

[mod mom]

3. Does the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence" know this?

"House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence

The Intelligence Committee redesigned Web site offers a monthly schedule, a Fact of the Day and Intelligence Triva as well as Frequenly Asked Questions area. As part of the redesign, GovTech Solutions reworked the site navigation to allow for a dynamic fly-out menu allowing users to find information with one click."

[MethuenProgressive]

6. If the Repugs own the systems, what happens after '08?

Will they stay behind the firewall eavesdropping on Presdient Clinton/Gore/Obama?

[MethuenProgressive]

7. ps, I love my fellow DUers, but will this be over the heads of most?

No offense, honestly. But the MSM will ignore this becuase it takes longer than 30 seconds to explain and there's no blood.

[L. Coyote]

13. EASY to understand. Abramoff quote says it all. "Dammit..."

Abramoff complained about a communication ending up on the White House server because the activity was supposed to remain secret. The secret was that they were trying to quash a casino deal because the casino operators were not loyal Republicans (also possibly read "paying kickbacks"). Here is the e-mail:

http://oversight.house.gov/Documents/20070326112419-30085.pdf

Abramoff writes, "Dammit, ... was not suppoed to go into the WH system"

===========
Rep. Waxman released this e-mail. Go to this DU thread for discussion also:

(Waxman) Committee Directs RNC to Preserve White House Emails
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2781758

The Three Dinosaurs:

[Miss_Underestimated]

18. Correction: Dinosaur and two treasonous snakes

[autorank]

17. Dem K&R!!! DemReading DU - What an excellent post! Kudos to ePluribus Media

Well, well, well..."the matrix" emerges. I've always wondered how they handled their communication
on various issues that were either now acknowledged or denied outright.

I think that the meaning of Bleevers famous Rove picture on election night takes on a whole new
meaning here.

The ePluribusMedia folks do a very nice job on collaborative projects. This may be their biggest
effort (their work on Mexico was excellent!).

Someone commented that the presence of material on these servers lifts the veil of executive
privilege. I don't know about that but it makes sense. It's outside the scope of government
work, by definition, if they're using outside communication channels.

Of greater importance, what's with "house.intelligence" there. Sounds like a security breach to
me. I mean how would you react if you found out your bank was using Yahoo or AOL .com or any other
external server to conduct your banking business?

Thanks Dem Reading DU!

[DemReadingDU]

21. Not only a massive network of contacts

but a massive External email network! Wow!!


I've just added the ePluribus Media to my favorite list of links
http://scoop.epluribusmedia.org/

[wordpix]

26. Congress should demand these non-WH emails be released. There is NO att'y-client privilege OR exec.

privilege with these documents.

[L. Coyote]

19. Parallel Threads on DU

kpete Updated at 12:47 PM
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x524601

..... "We knew E-mails could be subpoenaed," an aide told U.S. News & World Report. "We saw that with the Clintons but I don't think anybody saw that we were doing anything wrong."

So what does this mean? NYU law professor Daniel Shaviro says, "The easy and obvious point is that anything Rove sent out in an e-mail from his RNC address is not privileged." But then, drawing on an analogy with attorney-client privilege, he suggests it may mean even more: ....

======
L. Coyote 11:37 AM

Email-Gate FACTS: Felons, georgewbush.com, gwb43.com , et. al.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x523978

[DemReadingDU]

20. Thank you!

[FogerRox]

23. I read the KOS dairy last night, OMFG MFin SOB CS SOB's

This is stunning, its mind blowing. But what is good, when one of these posts at DU or KOS go up, Waxman or Conyers staffers read it, and most likely the next day, Conyers & Waxman are on it, like stink on shit.

Pasted from the KOS diary:
------------------
Mike Connell, CEO of the company New Media Communications, is also the proud pseudo-owner (his wife is the "official" bigwig) of GovTech Solutions. That company is the one that serves the Congress, behind the Congressional firewall. Many servers there.

Officially, Connell is rabidly Republican, and very much a "good Bushie." He handles, through New Media, nearly every Republican big-wig site out there -- RNC, GOP, RGA (Republican Governors), etc.

He also claims that he's created the separate company to keep his politics separate from his business duties to serve the gov't.

Unfortunately, the recent revelation of how RNC operatives use their external email to bypass the Presidential Records Act (and anything else that might require their nastygrams as evidence) has led to folks wondering just how "safe" the information is.

The story shows that there's definitely a flow of actual, physical data from outside New Media stuff (Ohio GOP) to the internal servers (GovTech's rendition of Intelligence.House.Gov); given the Bush Administration's propensity for erasing lines that are best left undisturbed, and for underhanded play, what's the chance that having a loyal operative handling sensitive servers behind the Congressional Firewall is a fluke?

And what's the chance that the servers, and their email contents or other data, aren't "leaking" back the other way?

...that's pretty much it.
--------------------------------------


GovTech Client List
Our Hill Clients Include

U.S. House of Representatives
U.S. House Ways and Means Committee
U.S. House Judiciary Committee
U.S. House Intelligence Committee
Republican Whip Roy Blunt
Congressman Joe Barton
Congresswoman Judy Biggert
Congressman Roy Blunt
Congressman John Boehner
Congressman John Culberson
Congressman Geoff Davis
Congressman Wayne Gilchrest Congresswoman Kay Granger Congressman Doc Hastings
Congressman Kenny Hulshof
Congressman Jim McCrery >Congresswoman Candice Miller
Congressman Hal Rogers
Congressman Mike Rogers
Congressman Lamar Smith Congresswoman Heather Wilson

U.S. Senate
U.S. Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship
Projects We Are Working On

Office of Rep. David Hobson
Summit County Children Services
Office of US Rep. Joe Barton Website Redesign
US House Committee on the Sciences and Technology - Republican Caucus
Center for Liberty in the Middle East
Foundation for the Defense of Democracy

[DemReadingDU]

24. Who is Michael L. Connell? Part I

Who is Michael L. Connell? Part I: The Atwater School of Politics
In this Part I: The Atwater School of Politics, ePluribus Media presents Connell's time line leading up to the formation of New Media Communications: his fast-tracked and early indoctrination into the no-holds-barred style of Bush family politics.

http://scoop.epluribusmedia.org/story/2007/3/28/143050/889


From ePluribus Media: Check back tomorrow for "Who is Michael L. Connell? Part II: Behind the firewall.

[DemReadingDU]

27. Who is Michael L. Connell? Part II

Who is Michael L. Connell? Part II: Behind the firewall.
Contributed by Todd Johnston and Luaptifer

In Part I: The Atwater School of Politics, we detailed the first half of Michael L. Connell's GOP career arc, from college-aged Bush 41 computer prodigy to seasoned smashmouth campaign planner.

In the latter half of the 90s, Connell's return to hi-tech was a no-brainer, as the Internet explosion unearthed new pathways and paradigms for soliciting votes. With the creation of his company New Media Communications, Connell began to blaze a nascent "super-highway" and to begin the task of re-branding the Bush family legacy from "wimp" to "winner." And by the end of the decade, New Media's GeorgeWBush.com and GOP.com gilded Connell's status as "a trusted partisan."

http://scoop.epluribusmedia.org/story/2007/4/2/6328/14926

[L. Coyote]

25. Email-Gate FACTS: Felons, georgewbush.com, gwb43.com , et. al.

Worked on this issue today. Lots of links at:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x523978