mel sembler heading scooter's defense fund

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mel sembler heading scooter's defense fund

Postby mxmendo » Tue Dec 06, 2005 9:10 pm

<!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/007185.php">www.talkingpointsmemo.com...007185.php</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br><br>"Eh, small world, small conspiracy.<br><br>This news has been out for a few weeks and I just hadn't noticed. But the Scooter Libby Legal Defense Fund is being headed up by none other than Mel Sembler, the Cheney-fan and the big-ticket GOP fundraiser from Florida who was the US Ambassador to Italy when all the secret meetings took place and when the forged uranium papers showed up at the US Embassy in October 2002. <br><br>Since I've reported on this story for almost two years and am still writing a series on it, I need to say explicitly that I've never seen any evidence tying Sembler to any bad acts related to the forgeries. So the 'conspiracy' crack is mainly a jest. But there's a lot that's still really murky about what was happening at the US Embassy in Rome after 9/11 with the forgeries and other matters. That was on Sembler's watch. And Libby's bad acts stem from the whole forgeries bamboozlement. (Whacking Wilson was part of the larger White House effort to keep the forgeries scam covered up -- a cover up that's still underway.) <br><br>So Sembler just seems like a pretty big part of this story to be collecting money for the one person under indictment for their role in it. "<br> <p></p><i></i>
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Re: mel sembler heading scooter's defense fund

Postby dbeach » Tue Dec 06, 2005 9:28 pm

Rumours<br><br>heard that plame stopped the "salting " [ deliberate planting}'of WMD's that were headed to Bagdad for a rendez -vous with wolfowitz whom if you remember was in a hotel in Bagdad that received heavy mortar fire.<br><br>If true then she is a Heroine.<br><br>But I think the whole thing is loaded with layers of lies and cover-ups to hide a HUGE bushco crime <br><br>The sale of NUKES on the international illegal market.. <p></p><i></i>
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Re: mel sembler heading scooter's defense fund

Postby chiggerbit » Tue Dec 06, 2005 9:38 pm

Aha!!! Thought that name sounded familiar. Take a look at this:<br><br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://thestraights.com/news/">thestraights.com/news/</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br>snips<br><br>(Also see DFAF's Advisory Board.) Check out this incredible document. As of October 11, 2001 Jeb Bush, the governor of Florida and brother to the President of the United States, is on the Advisory Board for Straight which now calls itself the DFAF (Drug Free America Foundation, Inc.) And so is his wife Columba! James W. Holton, Commissioner of the Florida Transportation Commission, is on the board of directors of the DFAF. It should come as no surprise to see Jeb Bush tied to DFAF, after all Betty Sembler was his finance cochairman. And then there is SAFE. Straight-Orlando closed on August 14, 1992. On that very day Michael Scaletta Straight - Orlando's executive director (taking Loretta Parish, Straight - Orlando's marketing director, with him) opened SAFE, Inc. out of the same facility Straight had used. In the morning the kids had been in Straight; after lunch they were in SAFE. In late 2000 TV station WAMI from Miami, Florida did a two-day exposition on SAFE. Because Governor Jeb Bush had previously visited SAFE he had been contacted while the segment was being produced to get his thoughts of SAFE. Even though he had been told that the segment was going to be controversial, Jeb Bush sent the station this letter of endorsement of SAFE! Even without Jeb and Columba, the list of names on Straight's Advisory Board is nothing short of extraordinary!......<br><br>......... (Also see DFAF's Advisory Board.) Check out this incredible document. As of October 11, 2001 Jeb Bush, the governor of Florida and brother to the President of the United States, is on the Advisory Board for Straight which now calls itself the DFAF (Drug Free America Foundation, Inc.) And so is his wife Columba! James W. Holton, Commissioner of the Florida Transportation Commission, is on the board of directors of the DFAF. It should come as no surprise to see Jeb Bush tied to DFAF, after all Betty Sembler was his finance cochairman. And then there is SAFE. Straight-Orlando closed on August 14, 1992. On that very day Michael Scaletta Straight - Orlando's executive director (taking Loretta Parish, Straight - Orlando's marketing director, with him) opened SAFE, Inc. out of the same facility Straight had used. In the morning the kids had been in Straight; after lunch they were in SAFE. In late 2000 TV station WAMI from Miami, Florida did a two-day exposition on SAFE. Because Governor Jeb Bush had previously visited SAFE he had been contacted while the segment was being produced to get his thoughts of SAFE. Even though he had been told that the segment was going to be controversial, Jeb Bush sent the station this letter of endorsement of SAFE! Even without Jeb and Columba, the list of names on Straight's Advisory Board is nothing short of extraordinary!. Here they are: <br>Jeb Bush Governor of Florida <br>Columba Bush wife of the Governor of Florida <br>James R. McDonough Florida's Drug Czar <br>Toni Jennings a Republican and formerly President of Florida's Senate <br>Robert L. DuPont, Jr. the founding director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) and the second White House Drug Czar. Dr. DuPont is a former paid consultant for Straight and has been an expert witness for Straight in many of its civil litigations for abuse. <br>Thomas Constantine Thomas A. Constantine is the former head of the DEA. We are checking to see if this is the same man. Robert L. DuPont, another DFAF Advisory member, is a business partner with Peter Bensinger, another former head of the DEA. <br>W.G. “Bill” Bankhead the "tough love," Secretary for Florida's Department of Juvenile Justice, who has awarded several contracts to Ramsay Youth Services, Inc. (Nasdaq: RYOU), formerly Ramsay Health Care, Inc, to operate juvenile prisons in Florida. <br>Rudy Bradley a Republican and Florida state Representative from Saint Petersburg who pushes faith-based initiatives. (Mr. Bradley is black and became something of a sensation a few years ago when he switched from the Democratic Party.) In 2002 Jeb Bush appointed Mr. Bradley as a commissioner on the Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioner's Committees on Consumer Affairs, Gas and International Relations <br>Richard M. Baker a Republican and the Mayor of Saint Petersburg, Florida <br>Rick Romely a Republican and the Attorney for Maricopa County, Arizona. He was a Betty Sembler's choice for the nation's drug czar. <br>James T. "Tim" Moore Commissioner of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement <br>Susan Latvala a Republican on the Pinellas County, Florida Commission <br>Brad Owen a Democrat and Lt. Governor of Washington state <br>Alfred Hoffman, Jr see write-up following this table <br>Stay tuned for more As you can tell from the source document it is difficult to decipher all the names. The Oakton Institute is working to get a clearer copy of the document and will update this page as further Board Members and Advisory Board members are identified. <br><br>The million dollar question is, "why did all these government officials join the Advisory Board for DFAF?" Could political contributions (money) have been a factor? We will look at that possible issue, but since most of the board members are Florida officials we will limit ourselves to Florida state campaign contributions. [To see Sembler contributions to Republicans at the national level click here.] State and federal election laws are written to limit the amount of money a person can contribute to a particular candidate for a particular election. The purpose is to keep a wealthy man or company from buying a candidate or from having undue influence over an elected official. But election laws have never been perfect. On November 6, 2002 the new campaign finance reform law went into affect. The bill was sponsored by Senators John McCain and Russ Feingold. The intent of the new law is to limit the amount of "soft" money people and groups can donate to political candidates and parties. In 1998 U.S. federal law set strict limits on the amount of money any one person can donate to a candidate for national office -- $1,000 for any one election. Further, the law limited an individual to $5,000 in contributions in any one year to state party or special interest political groups. And it limited to $20,000 per year the contribution a person can make to the national political parties. In other words the law put a yearly total limit on all political contributions for federal purposes at $25,000. That is called "hard" money--a specified top-line limit. It was the law in 1998 and might vary some before or after 1998. The problem is that there were loopholes in federal campaign fund raising laws. The law's limit did not apply to what are called "independent" expenditures, where money is spent to support or oppose a candidate independently of the candidate. And they did not apply to money spent on "issues" as opposed to calling for the election of a particular candidate. This is called "soft" money. Soft money allows individuals and groups to contribute much more than $25,000 in any one year. Not surprisingly, Lamar Alexander, Mel Sembler's first choice for President and recipient of a lot of money from Sembler, opposed the campaign refinance law. <br><br>After Jeb Bush's unsuccessful bid for governor of Florida in 1994 he formed the Foundation for Florida's Future, a charity to do constructive things for Florida; but there is evidence that the foundation funds were used primarily to pay the salaries of campaign aides until the next election cycle. Mel Sembler gave $5,000 to that foundation as did the Huizenga Family Foundation. Former paid Straight consultant and expert witness for Straight, the former Drug Czar Robert DuPont, is chief of the scientific advisory board for Psychemedics, Huizenga's hair follicle drug testing company. DuPont is now on the advisory board for DFAF. <br><br>Between 1996 and 2002 Mel Sembler and his clan donated $100,012.75 to the Republican Party of Florida. Additionally, between 1996 and 1997 Mel contributed $15,000 to the Republican Fund for the Nineties-State (PAC). And in 1998 he contributed $10,000 to the Campaign for a New American Century Stat (PAC). Mel's friend Walter Loebenberg, former President of Straight Foundation, former President of Drug Free America Foundation, and founder of the Florida Holocaust Museum, contributed $21,000 to the Republican Party of Florida between 1996 and 2002. Florida state law limits donations to candidates who are running for state offices to a maximum of $500 per person for any given election. Before we look at contributions to individuals, let me give you a heads up on how things can work. On April 18, 1996 Mel Sembler contributed $500 to Tom Feeney's war chest (Feeney was Jeb Bush's running mate the first time he ran). But as we've seen between 1996 and 2002 the Sembler clan gave $100,000 to the Republican Party of Florida. Between 1996 and 2000 the Republican Party of Florida donated $59,000 to Feeney's campaigns. Today Tom Feeney is the Speaker of Florida's House of Representatives. So there seems to be ways of getting additional money to candidates. <br><br>Besides Mel and Betty other potential Sembler donors include their sons and daughters-in-law Brent and Debbie Sembler, Greg and Liz Sembler, and Steve and Diane Sembler. Of these, Steve Sembler is not on the contribution bandwagon. In addition to Sembler donations to the Republican Party, the Semblers have given many donations to individual candidates. In 1997 Jeb received $3,500 from the Semblers. Mel and Betty gave $500 each on Sept 18, and Brent, Gregory, Dianne, Debbie, and Elizabeth each gave $500 on the 19th. On Jan 25, 2002 Mel, Greg and Elizabeth each gave $500 to Jeb. Debbie, Betty and Brent each gave $500 on Feb 7, and Greg and Brent donated another $500 each on Sept 13. Walter Loebenberg gave $500 to Jeb Bush in 1997 and $500 in 2001. Donald Sullivan, former secretary for Straight Foundation, donated $200 to Jeb's campaign in 1997 and $500 in 2002. Even Calvina Fay, DFAF's executive director, freed up $200 for ole' Jeb. Mel and Walter each gave $500 to Jeb's running mate's (Frank Brogran's) campaign. Betty Sembler was Jeb's finance co-chairman in 1997. Mel financially supported Jeb's dad so George Bush I made a TV commercial for Straight and made Mel ambassador to Australia. Mel financially supported Jeb's brother and so George Bush II made Mel ambassador to Italy. Mel supported Jeb and Jeb joined the advisory board for DFAF and wrote a letter of endorsement for the controversial Straight legacy program in Orlando called SAFE.....<br><br>........In late 1991 HRS revoked Straight - Orlando's permanent license and gave it a temporary one because of violations of state code. The regular license was reinstated in April 1992, but on August 14, 1992 Straight-Orlando closed. On that very day Michael Scaletta opened Substance Abuse Family Education, Inc. (SAFE), <!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>A Florida HRS site visit report of SAFE conducted between July 6 - 8 and July 13 - 15, 1993 found that during the 30 day period leading up to the state investigation there had been approximately 29 "reported" incidents of restraint while only 1 reported incidence of restraint at all other juvenile drug rehabs in the district combined!</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--> In 1993 HRS notified SAFE that the state would impose fines on SAFE for violations of administrative code in particular those revolving around excessive use of restraints.....<br><br><br>.......In 1997 Alfred Hoffman, Jr., Jeb Bush's finance co-chairman, paid $32 million for a Coral Gables yacht club that he bought from one Armando Codina, a leader of the right-wing Cuban American National Foundation. Armando Codina is an ex-business partner of Jeb Bush. According to Salon ezine, "American intelligence and law enforcement authorities firmly believed that [one Orlando] Bosch was responsible for . . . the 1976 explosion that brought down a Cuban airliner, killing all 76 civilians aboard, although Venezuelan prosecutors had failed to convict him of that terrible crime." In 1989 Bosch was in prison in America for entering the country illegally, but prominent Miami Republicans, including businessmen with the Cuban American National Foundation, pressured President Bush to pardon Mr. Bosch. President Bush's son Jeb had made a fortune in real estate deals with some of these Cuban exile businessmen who had advocated Bosch's release. George H. W. Bush pardoned Bosch and worked out a deal so he could stay in America despite the Justice Department's desire to have him deported because he had, "repeatedly expressed and demonstrated a willingness to cause indiscriminate injury and death." ,,,<br><br><br><br><br> <p></p><i>Edited by: <A HREF=http://p216.ezboard.com/brigorousintuition.showUserPublicProfile?gid=chiggerbit@rigorousintuition>chiggerbit</A> at: 12/6/05 7:02 pm<br></i>
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Mel Sembler

Postby robertdreed » Tue Dec 06, 2005 9:47 pm

RI discussion already has quite the book on <br>Mel Sembler- it should be in the back pages of the discussion somewhere, when I get a chance I'll link it. <br><br>Sembler was chief fundraiser for the national GOP in the year 2000, it isn't surprising that he'd be in charge of raising money for Libby's defense. <p></p><i>Edited by: <A HREF=http://p216.ezboard.com/brigorousintuition.showUserPublicProfile?gid=robertdreed>robertdreed</A> at: 12/6/05 6:49 pm<br></i>
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Sembler and Bay Point School

Postby starroute » Tue Dec 06, 2005 10:05 pm

Sembler is also linked to Bay Point School that was involved in some rather murky claims of Florida vote-rigging. I frankly don't know what to make of him -- but I'm certainly keeping a file. <p></p><i></i>
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Re: Sembler and Bay Point School

Postby chiggerbit » Tue Dec 06, 2005 10:31 pm

Oh, yes, now I remember--Mel Sembler and the penis pump. Very creepy, considered in conjunction with the abuse at the rehabilitation center for kids.<br><br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://italy.indymedia.org/news/2005/03/757886.php">italy.indymedia.org/news/...757886.php</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br><br><!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>In January The Montel Williams Show ran a segment about a woman who survived the horrors of Ambassador Sembler's Straight program. It was a terrifying segment causing Ambassador Sembler to announce within hours of the airing that he would be coming home as soon as the President had found a replacement for him. Two weeks ago Al Kamen of the Washington Post reported on a scheme by our Ambassador to Italy Mel Sembler and his hometown Congressman Bill Young to buy and refurbish a mansion in Rome for $113 million of taxpayer's money and have it, and its great hall, dedicated to themselves. After that Wes Fager reported in Tampa Bay Indy Media that Congressman Young had overseen a $50 million appropriation to repair the causeway out to Treasure Island, Florida, the exclusive waterside community where the Semblers live. Last week Allessandro Ursic, an Italian journalist, published an article lambasting Ambassador Sembler for operating a program that abused American kids. <br><br>And now, today, writer John Gorenfeld has once again written about Melvin Sembler for his lack luster performance as an ambassador and for his role in organized child abuse.<br><br>Sixteen years ago Gary Trudeau blasted Sembler in his Doonesbury Comic strip for buying his first ambassadorship. That's when Senator Paul Sarbanes scolded Mel Sembler and fellow ambassador nominee Joseph Zappala (another Straight founder), on the Senate floor, for plagiarism by using almost exact wording in their Senate biographical application forms. The St. Pete Times gave Sembler a "Sour Orange Award" for that one. This year The Washington Post gave him its "Narcissism Run Amok" award for buying a monument to himself. His hometown newspaper has used the words "rotten" and "foul odor" in articles about Sembler or his company. The Uhuru continue to protest him for being a racist. The Internet is abuzz about a lawsuit the ambassador has brought against one of his former employees who found the ambassador's penis pump in a trash can. In 1991 the St. Petersburg, Florida Chamber of Commerce tried to build a monument to then Ambassador to Australia Mel Sembler. Today as Sembler prepares to come back home, Craig Sher, CEO of Sembler Company, is chairman of the St. Pete Chamber of Commerce. How many teachers and firemen will the city lay off in order to have the money to finally build a monument to this great narcissist?<br><br>And how much more embarrassment is the US President going to allow this political clown to bring upon our nation? Please read "His Own Private Abu Ghraib" by John Gorenfeld--the man who broke the story in Salon Magazine of the coronation of Reverend Sun Myung Moon in the Senate's Dirksen Office Building (a story that made it to The New York Times and The Washington Post):<br><br>His Own Private Abu Ghraib by John Gorenfeld<hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--><br><br>Good subject for a data dump. <p></p><i>Edited by: <A HREF=http://p216.ezboard.com/brigorousintuition.showUserPublicProfile?gid=chiggerbit@rigorousintuition>chiggerbit</A> at: 12/6/05 7:41 pm<br></i>
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Re: Sembler and Straight, Inc.

Postby robertdreed » Tue Dec 06, 2005 10:58 pm

Some of the comments on this thread contain more information and links on Sembler. <br><br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://p216.ezboard.com/frigorousintuitionfrm10.showMessage?topicID=1949.topic">p216.ezboard.com/frigorou...1949.topic</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--> <p></p><i></i>
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Re: Sembler and Bay Point School

Postby illuminaughty » Wed Dec 07, 2005 9:16 am

There was someone named Jeff Fisher who ran for Congress who was connecting the vote rigging to Bay Point. We had a very similar situation here in Missouri's election. I spoke to Jeff once about the irregularities in registration, but can't really say if he's a credible source.<br><br>What is interesting is that out of the blue the KC Star had a headline a couple of weeks ago stating that U.S. govt. will sue state of Missouri over voter registration irregularities. Vote padding and purging. The vote padding I found was connected to Halfway houses/ Drug rehab funded by same type of groups as Straight. <p></p><i></i>
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"Voter registration irregularities" is a GOP issue

Postby starroute » Wed Dec 07, 2005 11:46 am

It's a kind of bait-and-switch operation. Vote-rigging and voting machine tampering is where elections are actually stolen. But the Republicans are always able to come up with some urban precinct where two dead men and a dog were registered to vote and turn that into the issue instead. That's where all the noise about "voter id cards" is coming from.<br><br>Missouri is a particularly striking case. There's a Republican operative named Thor Hearne who was pushing claims of voting "irregularities" in St. Louis back in 2000. Last spring, he was involved in an astroturf group called the "American Center for Voting Rights" that popped up out of nowhere to testify before hearings that Abramoff crony Bob Ney was holding on the 2004 Ohio mess.<br><br>Missouri also seems to be a prime nexus for dirty Republican politics and campaign money-laundering. So I'd be very wary of anything involving Missouri and question exactly whom it benefits.<br> <p></p><i></i>
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Re: "Voter registration irregularities" is a GOP i

Postby illuminaughty » Thu Dec 08, 2005 4:25 am

Exactly right. My only hope was that with Delay, Frist and the crew going down, that maybe the house of cards is falling.<br>They continually refer to Roy Blunt as a sucessor of Delay and any truth behind this last election would destroy him and his baby boy Governor. <p></p><i></i>
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