It is a time of fear in the face of freedom, a time for the widening of previous roads and the opening of new paths, a time of an emptying country and swelling cities, yet a time when these paths are mined by knowing algorithms of the all-seeing eye. It is the time of the warrior's peace and the miser's charity, when the planting of a seed is an act of conscientious objection.
 | Mystery of Unity08 Non-Report Solved |
The mystery behind Unity08’s lack of a promised update to their report of donations has been solved.
The donors list on the Unity08 website has not been updated to reflect donations of $200 or more through October 1 (one month later than the previous update through September 1), because (as the IRS 3rd Quarter report shows) there was not a single donation of $200 or more to Unity08 after the single donation on September 1 reported the month before.
Only three donations of at least $200 were received by Unity08 in August and September:
8/2/2006 Shane Kinkennon 1440 Church St. NW #203 Washington DC 20005 $250
8/14/2006 George Vradenbur 1350 I Street NW Ste 200 Washington DC 20005 $5000
9/1/2006 Lasley Gober 2762 Dover Rd. Atlanta GA 30327 $200
Shane Kinkennon works in public relations and communications and is a publicist for Unity08.
“George Vradenbur” is misspelled, and actually refers to George Vradenburg, an expert on media policy who now works for America Online as a Senior Vice President on policy issues. (Steve Case, the CEO of America Online, donated $5000 too, back in late June of 2006).
Lasley Gober is on the Unity08 Founders’ Council. Ms. Gober also teaches at the Westminster Schools, where Kathleen Jordan attends as a student. Kathleen Jordan is the daughter of Hamilton Jordan, a former White House Chief of Staff who is listed as a co-founder of Unity08.
This is turning out to be a really, really grassy grassroots organization.
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why do you keep giving unity08 free press? they obviously aren’t going anywhere.
Comment by Vynce — 11/27/2006 @ 2:37 pm
Because I worry that they are going to try to go somewhere in the near future, and to siphon off real, actual, grassroots energy for their insider politics that masquerades as people politics.
I don’t want Faux Populism 2008 to kill the real thing and let the Republicans get in office. Now, we’re in the political doldrums. But I predict that Unity08 is going to have another go at provoking public sympathy come January. When that happens, I want people to know what Unity08 is and does.
Good enough reason?
Comment by Jim — 11/27/2006 @ 3:18 pm
oh, sure, certainly a good enough reason. i didn’t mean to imply you didn’t have one, jsut that i didn’t know what it was.
though i still question the judgement. to me, it seems a small-time, pathetic enough attempt that talking about it only makes it stronger. it seems to me that, until they demonstrate some ability to pass as grass roots or get anything done, they aren’t worth the energy. i’d rather see the effort put into the 2008 reasons, or starting a real grassroots movement for progressive leadership.
but that’s just me. i don’t know how politics really works, so i’m just stuck in my little ideal world. and i never see anything about unity 08 anywhere but here, so it’s hard for me to take them seriously. if you want to talk about faux populism, i’d focus more on the movements that seem to be going somewhere. if there are any.
Comment by Vynce — 11/27/2006 @ 3:39 pm
Well, the thing is that because Unity08 has some political insiders, and because they are working through a connected public relations outfit, they have been able to get prominent media mentions, cable TV interviews, David Broder in the Washington Post getting all misty, and so on. So that gave it some more fake-grassroots legs.
Comment by Jim — 11/27/2006 @ 3:50 pm
This outfit surely does look like a scam of some kind, but what? At first I thought it might just be a dummy agency set up to give the offstring of some influential people something to put on their resumes, but it’s starting to look more complex than that. They don’t have even one issue, they don’t have even one candidate, but somehow all this money is changing hands.
The Republicans have had their fingers in a lot of doubtful stuff. They have gotten people to send talking points verbatim from their website to editors of newspapers and try to pass them off as “grassroots” letters from ordinary citizens, which seems to amuse IT no end. They have also attempted to subvert the electoral process, as documented by the Conyers report, which IT barely acknowledges.
I would like to see the IT bloodhounds unleashed and the Unity08 mystery probed.
Comment by Alan — 11/27/2006 @ 11:51 pm