was reading RedEarth's thread about how the whole Rick Santelli rant was part of a planned campaign: link removed
That led me to GinaMaria's thread about how Chicagoteaparty.com was registered back in August. link removed
This got me thinking about something I put in my DU journal back in May '08: link removed
It was about a website called angryrenter.com which is basically astroturf claiming to represent a grassroots renters' movement against any kind of government mortgage bailout. If you look at the site now, it mentions Obama, but of course it didn't when I wrote about it back in May. I'm not sure exactly when angryrenter.com went online but the domain was registered back in early March '08. If angryrenter is connected in some way with Chicagoteaparty.com and Santelli then this thing goes back even earlier the GinaMaria suggested.
And I think I can show that it is definitely connected. http://http://whois.domaintools.com/angryrenter.com shows that the IP address for angryrenter is 67.192.105.50. http://whois.domaintools.com/67.192.105.50 shows the following for 67.192.105.50.
OrgName: Rackspace.com, Ltd.
OrgID: RSPC
Address: 9725 Datapoint Drive
Address: Suite 100
City: San Antonio
StateProv: TX
PostalCode: 78229
Country: US
http://whois.domaintools.com/chicagoteaparty.com shows that chicagoteaparty.com is located at 72.32.231.8. http://whois.domaintools.com/72.32.231.8 shows the following info for 72.32.231.8.
OrgName: Rackspace.com, Ltd.
OrgID: RSPC
Address: 9725 Datapoint Drive
Address: Suite 100
City: San Antonio
StateProv: TX
PostalCode: 78229
Country: US
Now this by itself could be written off as a coincidence - they both just happened to use the same hosting service for their websites. But it's just one piece of the puzzle. Here's another piece - at the bottom of the front page of angryrenter.com there is a link to freedomworks.org, and the whois info for angryrenter.com shows this:
Registrant:
FreedomWorks
601 Pennsylvania Ave. NW
Suite 700 North Bldg
Washington, District of Columbia 20004
United States
Now, if you go to http://freedomWorks.org, what do you see? A picture of an angry Rick Santelli superimposed over an old drawing of the original Boston Tea Party, and the words "Are you with Rick? We are." and the lead article is about Friday's DC Tea Party.
So, Freedom Works started a website protesting Mortgage bailouts sometime between March 2 (the date angryrenter.com was registered) and May 10 (the date I wrote about it) and now they're jumping on the Rick Santelli Chicago tea party bandwagon.
But here's the kicker, if you check out the IP address for freedomworks.org you'll find that it is 98.129.129.184. And if you check out the whois info for that IP you will once again see:
OrgName: Rackspace.com, Ltd.
OrgID: RSPC
Address: 9725 Datapoint Drive
Address: Suite 100
City: San Antonio
StateProv: TX
PostalCode: 78229
Country: US
Now read the sourcewatch page for Freedom Works - http://sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=FreedomWorks - and then check out their predecessor, Citizens for a Sound Economy - http://sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Citizens_for_a_S... .
CSE is often described as a "consumer group," but according to internal documents leaked to the Washington Post, 85 percent of its 1998 funding came from major corporations. "The 'citizens' in question companies like Amoco, Bell Atlantic, Citibank, General Electric and General Motors", Washington Babylon explains (p. 15). "During recent years, the CSE, headed by C. Boyden Gray, who acted as counsel to the president under George W. Bush, has opposed health care reform and a rise in the minimum wage, while championing corporate tax cuts, deregulation and a balanced budget."
Funding
The CSE - which is a 501(c)4 tax-exempt organisation - has a related funding arm, the Citizens for a Sound Economy Foundation (CSEF) which is a 501(c)3 tax-exempt organisation. (See The U.S. tax code and non profits for further details). In its 2002 Internal Revenue Service return, the CSEF listed its total revenue as being $3.9 million. CSEF budget details
According to the annual report filed by the Foundations the board members to the two entities are shared. (The 2002 return also notes three other organisations - the Taxpayer Action League, the Tax Foundation and Citizens for the Environment - are other related entities with the same board members. The Tax Foundation and Citizens for the Environment were, according to CSEF's IRS return, created during 1998).
According to internal documents leaked to the Washington Post, 85 percent of CSE’s 1998 revenues of CSE's $16.2 million came not from its 250,000 members, but from contributions of $250,000 and up from large corporations.
The then CSE President, Paul N. Beckner, rejected the notion that the organisation was a corporate megaphone. "We aren't a group for hire ... There's a bright line that defines our independence. There is only one position we can take on most issues: the one that means less government and lower taxes. We choose the issues we work on, and we decide how that money is expended."
According to Media Transparency, between 1985 and 2002, CSEF received $16,928,712 in 108 separate grants from only twelve foundations:
* Castle Rock Foundation
* Earhart Foundation
* JM Foundation
* Koch Family Foundations (David H. Koch Foundation, Charles G. Koch Foundation, Claude R. Lambe Foundation)
* John M. Olin Foundation, Inc.
* Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation
* Philip M. McKenna Foundation, Inc.
* Scaife Foundations (Scaife Family, Sarah Mellon Scaife, Carthage)
In 2002, CSEF gained $920,000 in grants from three of these foundations, accounting for a little under one-quarter of the organisation's revenue. The Claude R. Lambe Foundation was the most generous contributing $700,000 for general operating costs while the Scaife Foundation donated $175,000 and the John M. Olin Foundation $45,000.
Other CSE funders (not included in above funding total) have included:
* Archer Daniels Midland
* DaimlerChrysler ($25,000)
* Enron
* General Electric
* Koch Industries
* F.M. Kirby Foundation
* Philip Morris (>$1 million)
* U.S. West ($1 million)
* ExxonMobil ($75,000)
* Exxon ($175,000)
* Hertz ($25,000)
* Microsoft ($380,000)
* U.S. Sugar Corp. ($280,000)
All very interesting, wouldn't you say?
link removed