A ton of the money that Trump is raising for his reelection bid is going to legal fees.

I'm like a reverse Robin Hood. I take from the stupid and give to me.

Courtesy of CNN: 

More than one-fifth of the $3.9 million that President Donald Trump's 2020 re-election campaign has spent this year has gone to legal fees, the campaign's latest quarterly Federal Election Commission filing shows. 

About $835,000 in payments for "legal consulting" were made to eight firms and the Trump Corporation, with the most -- $347,000 -- going to Jones Day. Another $185,000 went to the firm Larocca Hornik Rosen Greenberg & Blaha. About $24,000 went to the Trump Corporation. 

The steep legal bills come amid a probe into whether the Trump campaign was involved in Russia's interference in the 2016 presidential election as well as a legal battle with adult film star Stormy Daniels. 

In the first two months of 2018, the campaign paid $93,181.25 to the firm of Charles Harder, the attorney representing Trump in the Stormy Daniels case.

Well to be honest, this is probably a good idea since it is really hard to run for office while sitting in a federal prison. 

But don't worry deplorables, Trump isn't just wasting your hard earned money on lawyer's fees, he is also using it to support his various businesses.

Trump's campaign has also spent about $150,000 at Trump businesses, including the legal fees, per the FEC report. That includes about $68,000 at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, DC, to cover costs including event rental space, hotel stays and parking. 

The campaign spent another $58,000 on costs listed as "rent" divided between three recipients: Trump Plaza, Trump Restaurants and Trump Tower.

I am not certain that it is true, but I heard that if you look up the word "suckers" in the dictionary that this is the photo that you see. 

That may not be factually correct, but I BELIEVE it to be true.

If Donnie Junior didn't do anything wrong in that meeting with the Russians, then why did the Trump campaign start paying his lawyers two weeks before he was forced to reveal those emails?

I'm fucked.

Courtesy of The Daily Beast:  

About two weeks before the release of emails showing Donald Trump Jr. seeking opposition research from attorneys representing the Russian government, his father’s reelection campaign began paying the law firm now representing Trump Jr. in the ensuing political and legal fallout. 

A new filing with the Federal Election Commission shows that President Trump’s reelection campaign paid $50,000 to the law offices of Alan Futerfas on June 26. That was around the time, Yahoo News reports, that the president’s legal team learned of a June 2016 email exchange in which Trump Jr., through an associate, solicited damaging information about 2016 election rival Hillary Clinton. 

When the New York Times revealed the email, and the meeting it set up, last week, Trump Jr. hired Futerfas, who is best known for representing four of New York’s major Italian mob families. The announcement of the hire came not from the Trump campaign but from the president’s company, where Trump Jr. remains a trustee.

Okay here's the thing, if the Trump campaign is paying these lawyers that essentially means that this meeting was sanctioned by the campaign.

Right?

And doesn't THAT also now mean that the entire campaign is complicit in the collusion as well?

Sure seems that way.

This also gives more evidence that Trump was lying about not knowing this meeting happened until it was reported last week. Hard to imagine these payments went out and Trump did not know about them.

Damn this thing just gets more scandalous every day.

So apparently Donald Trump is paying a the fictional ad company on the TV show Mad Men for "web advertising." Wait, what?

NOT a real advertsing

Courtesy of Mediaite:

 In their most recent FEC filing, the Donald Trump campaign revealed that they paid $35,000 to an ad agency that, by all appearances, doesn’t actually exist.

Think Progress’ Judd Legum caught the odd detail when poring over Trump’s financial statements. 

Draper Sterling is the name of the ad agency in AMC’s Mad Men. But Legum is right; Trump’s financial filings show that he made several payments to Draper Sterling in April of this year for web advertising.

Apparently the address for this fictional company is just a hop, skip, and a jump from former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski's hometown.

Probably just a coincidence.

Or not.

Want some Trump news? The campaign is doing a forensic audit on all of Corey Lewandowski's spending.

— Matt Mackowiak (@MattMackowiak) June 21, 2016

I kid you not, I literally do not know what to say here.

The Daily Beast digs deep into SarahPAC's spending methods.

Courtesy of the Daily Beast: 

Sarah Palin and her folksy turns of phrase returned to the stump last week, trailing amped-up Trump fans and self-serving fundraising requests in her wake. 

“In order to get Sarah to political events to support endorsed candidates we need your help to fundraise her travel,” said an email from Sarah PAC after her “historic” Trump endorsement.

It’s true, travel is expensive. After all, what self-respecting reality TV star stays at a Holiday Inn these days?

And where does all of that money come from?

According to Federal Election Commission reports, in the first six months of last year, Sarah PAC—Palin’s organization that purports to be dedicated “to help[ing] elect principled, conservative leaders” spent $16,062 on a private charter in Jackson, Wyoming, $3,855 on a “car and driver” in Long Island City, New York, and a total of $4,364 at La Playa Hotel in Naples, Florida. 

So as much as Palin rages against the Washington political machine, the consultant class and all the “elites,” the spending by Sarah PAC shows that it remains the same lifestyle-fundin’, consultant-payin’ organization it has been since she launched it in 2009. 

Now, it’s all legal and—to be fair—$35,000 of the $825,556 that Sarah PAC began with in 2015 ($493,507 of which was raised in the first six months of last year) actually went to federal candidates and causes in the first half of last year: $25,000 to candidates for federal offices and $10,000 to the Navy Seal WFF Family Foundation, a charity for the families of the Naval special forces. 

But after that, it seems that the PAC has had more to do with pumping up Palin and her entourage than pumping up conservative candidates. 

For example, $38,000 was spent on speechwriting—$36,000 of which went to Aries Petra Consulting LLC, owned by longtime Palin aide Rebecca Mansour.

Of course that last expense may not be showing up in future filings, as RAM has moved on up.

Well not so much "up" as "over" to the dark side.

I think my favorite part of this article is how it lists the lists how the donations have dwindled over the years:

A look through FEC filings for Sarah PAC throughout the years, shows the bulk the money—largely from small donors —has been spent disproportionately on the people who run the PAC as well as fundraising efforts and direct mail. 

For example, in 2010, the first election cycle after Palin’s unsuccessful bid for vice president, Sarah PAC raised $5.7 million, spent about $4.4 million, of which $467,000 went to conservative candidates. 

The numbers from 2012 aren’t terribly different: $5 million raised, $5.1 million spent, $298,500 went to candidates. 

And in 2014, SarahPac raised $2.8 million, spent $3.1 million with $205,000 of the haul going to candidates.

I never get tired of watching Palin's credibility and support crumble all around her.

Of course most of this we have already documented ourselves here on IM over the years, but the fact that a news outlet like the Daily Beast is talking about it ahead of the next filings shows that there may be more scrutiny this time around, and I imagine they will have much to scrutinize.

And by "much," I mean expenditures, not incoming donations.

Donald Trump files his financial disclosure with the FEC today. Did he not get the memo that his candidacy is just a joke?

Courtesy of Forbes: 

Donald Trump filed his personal financial disclosure with the Federal Elections Commission today, claiming 2014 income of $362 million dollars. His campaign also said that his net worth “is in excess of TEN BILLION DOLLARS.” 

“Mr. Trump‟s net worth has increased since the more than one year old financial statement produced at his presidential announcement,” the campaign release states. “Real estate values in New York City, San Francisco, Miami and many other places where he owns property have gone up considerably during this period of time. His debt is a very small percentage of value, and at very low interest rates. As of this date, Mr. Trump‟s net worth is in excess of TEN BILLION DOLLARS.”

Interestingly enough that ten billion number is one that Forbes disagree with:

Forbes continues to disagree with Trump about his net worth, and has, in fact, chopped the net worth valuation from $4.1 billion to $4 billion since Trump’s remarks about Mexican immigrants during his campaign launch speech caused an end to business deals with NBCUniversal, Univision, Serta Mattresses, and Macy's M +7.91%, as well as PVH PVH -0.81% Corp. and Perfumania, the manufacturers of his menswear line and fragrances, respectively. In the wake of these deals, we have dropped the value of his brand to 0 (previously, it was at $125 million).

Currently the personal financial disclosure form is not yet available on the Federal Elections Commission site, so we do not as of yet have a way of checking to see who is right on the numbers.

If it turns out that Trump is full of shit, I wonder how he will manage to blame the whole thing on Obama?

It should also be noted that currently Trump is leading in the polls among his GOP rivals: 

The Suffolk University/USA Today survey showed Trump getting 17% of the Republican vote, placing him ahead of Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush's (R) 14%. 

David Paleologos, director of the Suffolk University political research center, attributed Trump's rise to the ongoing controversy over his harsh rhetoric against illegal immigration. 

 "Trump is making daily headlines in advance of the primary season,” Paleologos said. "This has vaulted him to the top of the pack on the backs of conservative voters."

This has really irritated some of  those in the Republican party. In fact one Florida state congressman has outright stated that he believes Trump is nothing more than a plant by the Democratic party.

Well plant or no plant, it looks like Trump is now leading the presidential field. And if he is actually going through with the filing of his financial disclosures with the FEC then it might be time to stop seeing him as a joke for late night comedians, and instead see him as the embodiment of the joke that is now the Republican party.

With the Citizens United decisions having blurred campaign finance law the FEC Chairwoman is essentially throwing in the towel.

Courtesy of the AP: 

The chairwoman of the Federal Election Commission says she's largely given up hope of reining in abuses in raising and spending money in the 2016 presidential campaign and calls the agency she oversees "worse than dysfunctional." 

In an interview with The New York Times, Ann M. Ravel says she was determined to "bridge the partisan gap" and see that the agency confronted its problems when she became its chair last December. She said she had now essentially abandoned efforts to work out agreements on what she saw as much-needed enforcement measures. 

Instead, Ravel said she plans on concentrating on getting information out publicly, rather than continuing what she sees as a futile attempt to take action against major violations, the Times reported in a story posted to its website Saturday night. She said she was resigned to the fact that "there is not going to be any real enforcement" in the coming election, the newspaper reported. 

"The likelihood of the laws being enforced is slim," said Ravel, a Democrat. "I never want to give up, but I'm not under any illusions. People think the FEC is dysfunctional. It's worse than dysfunctional."

I can't say I'm surprised by this in the least, and in fact I assumed that the 2016 campaign season would be a free for all. 

However it is painfully clear that having billionaires buying candidates like children choosing puppies from a pet store is destroying our democracy, and something obviously has to be done to change things.

My daughter and I actually got into an argument over this the other day, with her angrily complaining that the Boomers broke the election system, and need to fix it. And with me agreeing with her, but pointing out that since it currently benefits the Republicans that there is no political will to do so.

At this point I am not sure what it will take for the two parties to come together to create a newer, more comprehensive, version of the old McCain-Feingold Act that would have the tools needed to rein in the outright purchasing of candidates, and the multi-millions of dollars being spent by corporations to decide the outcome of elections.

Sarah Palin's recent flurry of activity may be explained by newly released FEC documents showing that SarahPAC is losing money, hand over tightly clenched fist.

So the FEC just released the SarahPAC quarterly report, and things are not looking good for the former VP hopeful, and current professional conservative troll.

First off this is the first time in my memory that the end total has not been at least a million dollars.

Right now it stands at $970,938.92, where as last time it was $1,086,533.

Not only that but once again the PAC spent more than it brought in from donations.

SarahPAC brought in $460,647.85, but managed to spend $576,242.20 this quarter. Which of course means they spent almost $116,000 more than they managed to fleece their ignorant sheep for.

What is even more interesting is that Palin managed to spend more on consultants and postage this time around then she did the last time. 

During the last quarterly report Palin spent somewhere in the vicinity of $115,000 on consultants, where as this time she spent just under $130,000.

The same holds true for the ever hard to define "postage."

Last quarter SarahPAC spent just under $155,000, and this time that number expanded to a whopping $248,000. (Look I am no FEC expert, but this is the kind of red flag you can probably see from space.)

Palin also spent around $76,000 on airfare and lodging, including one huge expenditure for a private plane to the tune of $28,075. Oh yeah, she's frugal.

Of course all of the same group of coattail clingers remain with Palin. From Grey Strategies, to Aries Petra Consulting LLC, to Marilyn Lane, the same tired old group of truly ineffective consultants and supporters are still getting their dirty pieces of silver for helping this traitor.

It is somewhat interesting to note that Palin actually brought in a little more blood money than the last quarter,  $460,647.85 to $430,217 yet still managed to spend herself into the red.

I have long predicted that Palin will at some point burn through her last few remaining supporters and find herself appearing at the opening of a Piggly Wiggly in Arkansas, or a pet grooming business in Kentucky, for whatever spare change the owners are willing to throw her way.

And I think we are just about to that point.

I think that has a lot to do with Palin's recent crazed appearances, and her sudden gig as a ghostwritten contributor to Fox News.

Sarah Palin is clearly in freefall right now and there is little doubt that her eventual impact is going to create a huge crater that will devastate any of those who are too high on paint chips to run for cover.

P.S. Oh I almost forgot. SarahPAC also spent $3,320.00 on her crappy books to give out to supporters. Gee no wonder they're running away from her as fast as their pudgy little legs can carry them.

The SarahPAC filings are in and Palin's political pole dancing continues to underwhelm her once fanatical supporters.

So this is living vibrantly.

Courtesy of Roll Call:  

A former Republican Party Vice Presidential nominee has used her political action committee to cover more than $700,000 in expenses for her continuing activities. 

Sarah PAC, the political action committee of former 2008 Republican Party nominee for Vice President Sarah Palin, reported it had receipts of $717,264 and disbursements of $713,551 during the last six months of 2013. 

The PAC had $1,117,684 cash on hand at the end of the year. The PAC spent $242,673 on direct mail and postage; $101,500 on consultants; $69,000 on consultants for fundraising and compliance; $35,750 on research; $26,000 on speechwriting; and $9,909 on Harper Collins books for donors; among other expenditures. The report stated the PAC “did no advocacy.” 

The PAC gave $5,000 on 10/8 to Lonegan for Senate in the New Jersey Senate special election. (The PAC also donated donated $5,000 to Rep. Jason Smith.)

On the plus side this is a slight improvement over her last filing which showed that SarahPAC actually brought in less($460,537) than they spent ($496,505).

Hard to get too excited however over a PAC that barely breaks even.

And can you believe that Palin made the PAC  buy almost $10,000 worth of her crappy book? I think that just about accounts for about a third of the books that were sold.

It is also worth noting that Palin continues to eat away at her reserves. As of this filing she has $1,117,684 on hand while at the end of her last filing she had $1,113971.25 available.

At that rate she will be back to giving handjobs at the Mugshot Saloon for drinks and cocaine before you know it.

SarahPAC receives notification from FEC about missing money from the NRA. Uh oh!

"What? We got a letter?"

Courtesy of the FEC:

Dear Treasurer: 

Response Due Date 12/12/2013 This letter is prompted by the Commission's preliminary review of the report referenced above. This notice requests information essential to full public disclosure of your federal election campaign finances. Failure to adequately respond by the response date noted above could result in an audit or enforcement action. Additional information is needed for the following 1 item(s):

 - Schedule A supporting Line 15 of your report discloses an offset to an operating expenditure(s) totaling $11,169.86 from "National Rifle Association"; however, your report(s) does not appear to disclose a disbursement to this entity. Please provide clarifying information regarding this activity and amend your report(s) if necessary. (11 CFR § 104.3(a) & (b)) 

Please note, you will not receive an additional notice from the Commission on this matter. Adequate responses must be received by the Commission on or before the due date noted above to be taken into consideration in determining whether audit action will be initiated. Failure to comply with the provisions of the Act may also result in an enforcement action against the committee. Any response submitted by your committee will be placed on the public record and will be considered by the Commission prior to taking enforcement action. Requests for extensions of time in which to respond will not be considered.

What the FEC is referring to appears to be a refund for travel expenses claimed by SarahPAC from the NRA, which can be found here.  I have to imagine that this is connected to Palin's speech at the NRA convention on May 3rd, which would indicate that at least some of her travel expenses were paid for by the NRA.

Now I am not an expert on PAC's but is that legal? It must not be since the FEC is asking for information as to when SarahPAC directly sent $11,169.86 to the NRA itself.

The FEC must know about the speech, and be able to put two and two together, so it is highly doubtful they have not figured out the connection.

Things that make you go "Hmmm."

This could a very big deal and if the treasurer Timothy Crawford cannot come up with a reasonable explanation this may be the end of Sarah Palin's free ride on the backs of the dumbest people on the planet.

FEC fines McCain/Palin campaign for violations. Gee took long enough!

Courtesy of Roll Call:  

The Federal Election Commission has fined the 2008 presidential campaign of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., $80,000 for campaign finance violations. 

The Commission reached a conciliation agreement with John McCain 2008 Inc., the McCain-Palin Compliance Fund Inc., and John Schmuckler, the treasurer of both. 

The agreement states John McCain 2008 Inc. violated the law by accepting $377,657 in contributions that exceeded the limits of the Act; failed to report correctly the original dates on which $22,257,684 in contributions were received by its joint fundraising representatives; and failed to correctly report re-designations made to the compliance fund. 

The McCain Compliance Fund Inc. failed to file 48-hour disclosure notices for 169 contributions totaling $240,700 that it received prior to the general election. The fund also failed to correctly report the original dates on which contributions were received by joint fundraising representatives.

Wow when they say the wheels of justice move slowly they are not kidding!

Though I have to admit that I am a little disappointed that this is the ONLY thing that the McCain/Palin campaign are being called on the carpet over.

Considering the lies that were shoved down the throats of the American people during that campaign John McCain should have been kicked out of the Senate and both of them run out of the country,.

Oh well I guess I will just have to settle for Sarah Palin becoming a political pariah and John McCain having to spend his twilight years in the Senate battling the Teabaggers that his protege helped to create.

Postage, refunds, and payoffs, oh my. The SarahPAC FEC filings tell the continuing tale of a once prominent political figure's dramatic fall from relevance. Update!

"Maybe if I suck hard I'll get more money."

So I have taken a tour through SarahPAC's most recent FEC filing and have found the story is much the same as it has always been.

We already pointed out yesterday that the PAC took in less than it spent, which is a clear indication that Palin's star has not only fallen but that the crater it left behind is now becoming overgrown with weeds and new foliage.

Many of the expenditures are ones we have seen numerous times in the past:

Direct Mail: Approximately $43,000

Postage: Approximately $74,450

Consulting: Just a hair under $200,000 (Quite a lot of this was for RAM, a substantial chunk for Timothy Crawford, and the rest to Northstar Strategies and Pamela Pryor.)

Speech writing: $31,900. Boy did she get ripped off! (My favorite itemized cost in this section was $400 to a Dave Berg on May 9th. I have to wonder what kind of a contribution is only worth $400?)

Legal fees: Now this was an interesting one because Palin only paid Clapp, Peterson, Tiemessen, Thorsness L, a fee of $1,275 one time in January and then no more. Which makes me wonder if Palin has decided that she no longer needs a law firm on retainer, or if she simply cannot afford one?

Part Time Clerical: $20,000 still to the same two women as always, Marilyn Lane and Carol Ryan, both of Wasilla.

You may remember Marilyn as the Palin friend who helped her go after Wooten:

In her letter, Palin said Adrian and Marilyn Lane, who are friends of Palin's family and who lived in the same subdivision as Wooten, had seen him drink a beer at their house and then drive off in a patrol car "waving with beer in hand." 

In their interview with the investigator, Wall, the Lanes said they had seen Wooten come by their house and drink a beer before driving his patrol car during the summer of 2004. 

Marilyn Lane said she had seen Wooten drive off in his patrol car with another beer in hand. 

Wooten denied the Lanes' allegations, and Wall's investigation ruled that the claims made by the Lanes were unsubstantiated. 

Oh yeah, Palin owes this woman from WAY back. (Perhaps this is one of the many payoffs that I have been told about?)

Air fare: Approximately $21,800. Damn does this woman pay for any of her travel?

I know, silly question.

Okay well here was an item that really caught my eye.

Refunds: One for $5,000 to Elizabeth Martin Wiskemann for a contribution she made in 2012, and one for $2,000 to a Dr Donald R Scifres, TTEE. Also a 2012 donation.

Hmm, interesting! It appears that there is a way for at least SOME of the people Palin scammed into thinking she was running in 2012 to get their money back.

I wonder what is stopping the rest from following suit?

There were also two other expenditures that stood out.

One was to Wal-Mart for $271, and earmarked as items for gift bags. And the other is for Todd the Pimp for $325.62, earmarked as "shipping and items for gift bags."

Now the Wal-Mart purchase is on May 14th, which was two days before this Facebook post:

One last blast of Alaska winter today, hopefully? This is what "Grad Blast" means in Alaska! We'll move our graduation b-b-q indoors and watch the mini-blizzard from 'round the fireplace. (Global warming my gluteus maximus.) Congratulations to this year's graduates all across America. Job well done. Now the real job begins.

And the other one to the Toad, is right before Snowdrift Snooki gave this high school speech. And also where she handed out "goodie bags" and taped one dollar to the bottom of every student's chair.

All 27 of them.

Yep that's Palin for you, too cheap to even pay 27 dollars of her own money to make a stupid point.

As I said before this, to me, is clearly the end of the line for Palin. And  as somebody who has waited a long time to see it arrive, I have to admit it is a thing of beauty.

Of course Palin and her few remaining Palin-bots are in complete denial that this is in fact what we are seeing. Here is how treasurer Timothy Crawford explained the low numbers:

SarahPAC treasurer Tim Crawford said in an email to The Associated Press on Wednesday that the PAC, for the most part, gave donors a break and didn't fundraise aggressively during the latest reporting period. 

"Very pleased with the results," he said. "It is an off year after a presidential election where every donor was bombarded with requests."

Oh yeah, and if you believe THAT I have a Bridge to Nowhere to sell you at the end of which you will find Palin's pathetic excuse for a future.

Nice try though.

Update: Oh I forgot to mention that SarahPAC only paid out $5000 to Missouri's Jason Smith as their single campaign donation for this filing period. Which essentially undermines ANY idea that this is a true political PAC.

And let's face it, she only did THAT because he was the only political candidate willing to do this:

As Todd says, "What's in it for us?"

Stephen Colbert releases his SuperPAC FEC forms. And provides a little personal note to the FEC as well. Update!

Here is the supplemental memo that was attached to Colbert's filings.

Leave it to Stephen Colbert to make even an official filing funny.

If you are interested in what is contained in the filings you can find out by visiting the Colbert SuperPAC here.

Now just for shits and giggles let's compare Colbert's haul, all done to make a point about how damaging the effects of the Citizen's United ruling are, as well, of course, for comedic effect, to what Palin's PAC brought in.

This from ADN:

Sarah Palin's political action committee raised about $752,000 during the second half of 2011, according to financial disclosures filed Tuesday, less than half the nearly $1.7 million that SarahPAC raised during the first half of the year.  (I guess it becomes much harder to trick people into giving you money, once you finally admit that you have no intention of doing what they thought you were doing all along to earn their support.)

She has had words of praise for many of the candidates -- Rick Santorum, Ron Paul, Newt Gingrich -- and said before the South Carolina primary that she would vote for Gingrich to keep the race going. 

But the disclosures, filed with the Federal Election Commission, do not show any contributions to any of the 2012 GOP presidential contenders. Palin's contributions do include $5,000 to the Republican Party of Iowa, a contribution that came on the eve of the Ames Straw Poll in August when Palin visited the state, and a charitable contribution of $300 to Paws and Effect of Des Moines, Iowa. (Really? NO money to Newt? I guess Palin is all talk, with nothing to back it up.)

SarahPAC spent $1.2 million during the second half and ended 2011 with about $1 million on hand.   

Among the expenses: $50,450 for DVDs and shipping to donors; at least $2,022 for copies of the U.S. constitution from the National Archives; nearly $60,000 for video work and photography; and $16,900 to a group listed as "Republican Presidential Travel," for charter air services. About $2,600 was for Todd Palin, Palin's husband, dated Aug. 29, for airfare, food, lodging and fuel (And whores). 

 Palin also listed $225 for a tour of Mount Vernon, one of the stops on her "One Nation" bus tour last year, and $932 for clambake catering in New Hampshire, her last stop on the trip's first leg. Bus repairs, dated Oct. 27, were listed at about $1,100. 

Oh how the mighty have fallen!  I guess even a natural born grifter like Sarah Palin can only fool some of the people some of the time. (But let's face it there are Palin-bots who will NEVER stop throwing their money away on her, even if after she starts tucking her boobs into her socks and there is not a single hair left on her head.)

I think my favorite part of the expense report is that SarahPAC paid $50,450.00  for copies of "The Undefeated," which they then sent off to Palin-bots to punish them for supporting her. ("That'll teach ya!")

I swear this day simply could NOT get any better!

Update: Here is Palin's actual FEC filing. I could really use some help with it, so if you find anything interesting please let me know.

Update 2: Politico has some interesting tidbits: Sarah PAC spent about $400,000 on the consultants who form the core of her small but devoted staff.

Peter Schweizer, who was hired as a foreign policy advisor to replace John McCain holdover Randy Scheunemann, was paid $60,000 in the second six months of the year. Other core Palin staffers include chief of staff Michael Glassner (who was paid $62,000), speechwriter and Palin Internet defender Rebecca Mansour ($48,000), fundraising consultant Tim Crawford ( $93,000), researcher Andrew Davis ($45,000), and conservative coalitions liaison Pam Pryor ($36,000).

$48,500 to RAM?  Does that mean she is still on the payroll? Or was that just her hush money?

Update 3: Mother Jones has made a graph comparing Sarah Palin's fake campaign fund raising to Stephen Colbert's fundraising.

If I might steal a little something from Rachel Maddow, THAT is the "best new thing of the day!"

SarahPAC paid $13,708 to decorate Sarah's bus so she could go on a five day vacation. How is that fiscal conservative BS working for ya? Update!

Courtesy of The Note:

Sarah Palin spent almost $14,000 to adorn her “One Nation” tour bus with larger-than-life renditions of the Constitution, Liberty Bell, and her signature.

That’s one of hundreds of expenditures listed in SarahPAC’s semi-annual FEC report, which was filed online today. The former Alaska governor’s political action committee paid $13,708.44 to the Tennessee company Fast Signs for “Bus Wrap” on May 26, three days before her tour of the northeast kicked off.

Unbelievable that the poor, undereducated paint chip eaters that are still dreaming of a Sarah Palin Presidency, spent almost $14,000 to decorate a bus so that their idol (And the only family member that could stand her) could visit tourist attractions for five days, while continuing to play the political prick tease in order to attract the publicity that she so desperately craves.

That is almost $3000 a day!  And what did the Palin-bots GET for their hard earned money?

This:



And of course this. Not to mention this. And really who could forget this? Which of course inevitably led to this.

Well gee that was such a good investment I wonder what else Palin spent her supporter's retirement savings on?

SarahPAC raised $1,658,897 during the first six months of 2011 and spent $1,591,520. The PAC has $1,402,368 cash on hand. In a statement, SarahPAC treasurer Tim Crawford told ABC News that the group “more than doubled the amount we raised as compared to the same time period in 2009. We received more than 36,700 contributions from over 24,000 contributors.”

Among SarahPAC’s other noteworthy disbursements:

-- $26,295.47 to a Visa/BankCard payment center in Dallas, Tex. for “Air Fare, Lodging, Car Rental, Wireless.” The date of disbursement is June 2, the day she visited Massachusetts and New Hampshire. 
Presumably, the sum accounts for some of the cost of her “One Nation” tour. 


So besides the $14,000 she wasted on this "bus tour" she also spent an additional $26,000 on air fare, lodging, and "CAR RENTAL!"  What the hell for? She had a bus with $14,000 worth of decorations on it that she could both live in AND use for transportation!


-- $5,794 to Israel’s Sar-El Tours and Travel for a“Tour of Holy Land.” Palin visited Israel in March and met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Oh yeah, that trip ALSO turned out well.

-- $18,700 to Young America’s Foundation, a conservative outreach organization aimed at students.

Is that how much the brain washing of young people costs these days? How much do you want to bet she could not get HER kids to attend if she duct taped them to the top of her car and drove their ass there?

-- $10,000 to Peter Schweizer for “Research Consulting.” Schweizer is a conservative author based in Florida who Palin hired as her foreign policy adviser in May.

I wonder if part of his advice was for Palin to hide in her room for two days while visiting India in order to avoid the locals?

-- $5,416.66 to Anchorage, Alaska’s True North L'Attitudes for scheduling.

-- $683 to the Nashville, Tenn. store Nico & LaLa for bookmarks.

There is in fact much more in these filings, which you can find here.

I have a feeling that this is just the beginning and that we will learn much more about how Sarah wastes her supporters money in the days, and weeks ahead.

You know some days I feel bad for the people who are so besotted with Sarah Palin that they will allow her to take such advantage of them.  Today is not one of those days.

You people are idiots, and she's a fraud, move on!

Update: It looks like the Washington Post has uncovered evidence that Palin's bus tour might actually have cost even MORE than we thought. Seriously?

But the total for the trip is likely much more, because many bills came in after the June 30 filing deadline, Sarah PAC treasurer Tim Crawford said in an interview. In addition, many other expenses associated with the trip, such as photography, videography, Internet fundraising and airfare, are more difficult to account for. (One item in the report describes $6,999 paid to an air charter company called Republican Presidential Travel on June 9, at the tail end of “One Nation.”)

Wait, what?  There is a such thing as a "Republican Presidential Travel" airline?  I have never heard of that.

And by the way neither have the folks over at Talking Points Memo. But they did learn THIS:


Doug Garrett, the former owner of Moby Dick Airways, told TPM that Republican Presidential Travel is headquartered in Alaska and under an agreement with the new owner of Moby Dick Airways only does charters in Alaska. He referred questions specifically about the services his company provided to Palin to SarahPAC.

Okay by a show of hands, does ANYBODY have any doubt that this airline is somehow ONLY providing flights to a certain half-term governor?

Yeah, that's what I thought.

SarahPAC blames mistakes made in donating to Murkowski and McCain on software. Sarah has taught her people well.

"I think you can say it was sloppiness on my part and my attorney's part," Crawford said, referring to the contributions. "We fouled up there. But it's been fixed." He said SarahPAC's lawyer is Mark Braden of Washington, D.C.

Under federal election law, political action committees can give candidates up to $5,000 per election if they meet certain conditions, including having at least 51 donors and contributing to at least five candidates. For other political action committees, lower limits of $2,400 an election apply. SarahPAC's official multi-candidate designation is in process, so it shouldn't have given $5,000, Crawford acknowledged.

"We jumped the gun," he said.

Translation: "Oops you caught us! Well it was not our fault of course, we were simply overly anxious to pay the hush money to Mccain and to bribe Murkowski not to point out how stupid Sarah's Facebook messages are to the public. Not that the bitch listened to us."

Crawford said SarahPAC uses election software, similar to TurboTax for income taxes, that walks aides through required disclosures. When they filed the mid-year report to the FEC, no violations were noted, so they thought they had done it correctly.

A PAC that brings in this kind of money is too cheap to hire an accountant? Damn! With supporters like these Sarah does not need any enemies.

The FEC wants more information about:

• The work people are being paid to do. The SarahPAC disclosure report used terms including "administrative" and "consulting." Crawford said the FEC wants just another word of explanation, such as clerical, or fundraising.

• Travel. If more than $500 was spent on a trip, payments need to be itemized. Meghan Stapleton, SarahPAC spokeswoman, said travel invoices didn't come in until after the report was filed.

• Fundraising expenses. The FEC wants to know whether the fundraising expenses listed in the report were for specific federal candidates. Crawford said the fundraising was strictly for SarahPAC.

SarahPAC collected nearly $733,000 in donations the first half of 2009 and spent about $276,000, according to the 265-page report.

I still cannot get over how little this PAC was able to collect. If this is all that Palin can attract for her very own PAC how does anybody believe she can be a fundraising tool for other GOP candidates?

And this was BEFORE she became a national laughingstock.

The FEC smells something fishy at SarahPAC. Hell I could have told them that months ago.

In an August 19 letter to SarahPAC, the FEC asked for more information on several irregularities in the PAC's mid-year report -- mostly consisting of failures to itemize on expenditures of certain sizes. In addition, it appears that SarahPAC neglected to properly file as a multi-candidate PAC, and thus made potentially illegal donations to Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), with the checks weighing in beyond the limit for a non-multicandidate PAC.

FEC spokesperson Julia Queen could not comment as to the severity or lack thereof, but could only explain the process of how the FEC's report look over all the filings. "If there is an appearance of a possible violation of the Act, the committee has 30 days to respond," said Queen. "And if any committee fails to respond adequately or fails to respond at all, the commission may take additional action, but that would be part of the enforcement process and I'm not allowed to discuss it."

Messages left at SarahPAC were not returned.

The FEC also pointed out that this does not necessarily mean that there is corruption in SarahPAC, it may just mean that they are incompetent. If I were to venture a guess I would say it is probably a little of both.

I don't know if any of you have noticed that Palin essentially seems to have the opposite of the "Midas touch", in that everything she touches turns to shit.

Our state suffered huge setbacks while she was our chief executive, she single handedly derailed the McCain campaign, she has made the GOP look like a boatload of imbeciles, and now her bad juju has infected her very own PAC. Damn!

No wonder Todd sleeps on the couch.