North Carolina Democratic Party Investigates FCC Chairman Kevin Martin
Submitted by Jerimee on Wed, 02/13/2008 - 2:04pm
The North Carolina Democratic Party today filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Office of the Inspector General to obtain a detailed list of Chairman Kevin Martin’s recent travel.
The request comes in the wake of numerous news reports that Chairman Martin may be using public funds and his position as Chairman of a large government agency to seek elected office in North Carolina.
“Members of Congress who are running for office are closely regulated to ensure that they are not campaigning on the taxpayer dollar – why shouldn’t Kevin Martin be held to the same standard?” said NCDP Chair Jerry Meek.
“Our citizens deserve to know whether their taxpayer dollars are being used for Kevin Martin’s political gain,” Meek said.
Mr. Martin’s end game of elected office has been widely reported. The New York Times (11/24/07) wrote that Martin is “widely expected to run for office someday in his native North Carolina,” and Roll Call Newspaper (12/20/07) reported that his “political ambition is no secret.”
Chairman Martin has a long history within the Republican Party. He served as lawyer on Kenneth Starr's Whitewater investigation team and was a key player in the 2000 Bush-Gore election recount where many African American votes were systematically discounted. Martin also served as deputy general counsel for the Bush 2000 campaign; and led the transition team's effort to pick new FCC Commissioners, including himself on the short list of potential nominees.
“Mr. Martin has been a longtime crony of the conservative movement and the Bush Administration,” Meek said. “We are concerned this conservative operative may be misallocating public funds to seek higher office and we want to get to the bottom of it.”
In the past month, the U.S. Congress has also launched an investigation into Mr. Martin’s stewardship of his agency. Other FCC Commissioners have commented that Martin has failed to inform them or the public of proposed agenda items and rules, creating an agency that lacks transparency, arrives at predetermined conclusions and completely disregards public commentary.
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Excellent work Jerry and Jerimee
I can't wait to see where this goes!
Robin Hayes lied. Nobody died, but thousands of folks lost their jobs.
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Great job!
I think what I appreciate the most about the current leadership of the NCDP is that they are actively representing us (Democrats) and our interests, not just sitting as figureheads and presiding over meetings.
Has Kevin Martin filed to run for a particular office, or is this a preemptive strike?
Be the change you wish to see in the world. --Gandhi
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"My darling girl, when will you understand that 'normal' is not necessarily a virtue. It rather denotes a lack of courage." - Alice Hoffma
Preemptive strike....Gosh I love the sound of that
Imagine being ahead of the game for once.
Robin Hayes lied. Nobody died, but thousands of folks lost their jobs.
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a partisan
While I don't believe that he has filed to run for an office yet, Kevin Martin is a partisan political figure.
The question is does he bother to take off the taxpayer funded hat before he puts on his Bush proxy hat.
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The GOP will try to suppress the vote in 2008.
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http://twitter.com/Jerimee
The chairman is not running for office in North Carolina
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6532186.html
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The GOP will try to suppress the vote in 2008.
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http://twitter.com/Jerimee
Congrats, NCDP
You are "welcome to FOIA the information." How nice of the FCC to allow the NCDP (and thus all of us) to do what is our lawful right. Of course, maybe this speaks to this current administration (both FCC and above) better than anything else. Since they claim the chairman has doing nothing wrong, we can have the info. But, if there's a doubt...
Wonderful stuff
I heard an NPR segment on how he refuses to reveal information even to other commissioners. His commission is a disaster for reporters. They have to file a FOIA request to find out anything.
They said his only goal (besides letting all the corporations he oversees consolidate their holdings) is to let cable subscribers choose which channels they receive. They reported that he wants Christians to be able to pick and choose which channels come into their homes. Otherwise, the public can just be screwed.
News of the 10th district: See Pat Go Bye Bye,
I bought a remote gizmo thingy
that lets me program which channels I switch to. The other channels (like TBN) still come in, I just don't ever watch them so I bypass them. It's called "Harmony", or something, and it works all the electronic dohickies we have.
You have to be a geek to set it up.
Christians should get one of those instead of trying to change which channels come into their house. You never know when you're going to need to watch the news or something.
Be the change you wish to see in the world. --Gandhi
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"My darling girl, when will you understand that 'normal' is not necessarily a virtue. It rather denotes a lack of courage." - Alice Hoffma
I never heard anyone say that Christians were asking for this
It's just what they said he had taken upon himself to provide for the public. Of course by the time he gets it done, there will probably be no cable TV!
He listened to all those public meetings where people didn't want media ownership consolidated and then he rammed the vote through against everyone's wishes and on his own rushed time table. I wonder what he gains from sleeping with corporate America this whole time.
News of the 10th district: See Pat Go Bye Bye,
Dude.
I bought a Logitech Harmony 1000 remote and it's pretty much my lord and savior. Gone are my 8354 remotes to perform ruitine tasks. It has a big touch screen with simple tasks on it, and POOF. While it's awfully hard justifying a $500.00 remote control, this shit's bananas. Definitely worth it. Which one did you get? And thanks for calling me a geek.
ours is a 659. It's old.
I think it only cost us $150 about 2 years ago.It did get rid of all the other stupid remotes that were littering our living room. And geeks are good Christopher.
Be the change you wish to see in the world. --Gandhi
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"My darling girl, when will you understand that 'normal' is not necessarily a virtue. It rather denotes a lack of courage." - Alice Hoffma
What office(s) do folks believe he is interested in?
Congress, perhaps Myrick's seat given his hometown of Weddington? Or some other office?? Just curious.
a friend of mine worked for the commission
He said this guy was a secretive, powermongering little punk. He also said there is no way he gets elected. He described him as a Ralph Reed without the charisma or intelligence.
"Hampton Dellinger would make a great Lieutenant Governor." - Al Gore.
"Man is free at the moment he wishes to be." -Voltaire
Who wants to be a corporate pawn?
We believe he is poking the eye of progressive constituencies to curry favor with conservatives in the corporate crowd. He’s using taxpayer money to raise his profile in North Carolina and that’s why we posted a FOIA request.
Who wants to be a corporate pawn? "MEMEME ME ME! ME! Please pick me!" shouts the precocious Kevin Martin.
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The GOP will try to suppress the vote in 2008.
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http://twitter.com/Jerimee
Extremely nice catch Jerimee.
I truly believe Kevin Martin should be watched and identified early in their "party of greed" career.
Jerimee, do you think there is any way a database can be set up that just might identify these "wingnuts" from state to state, so we might have an idea as to who we might watch out for in the near future?
Being prepared is part of the battle. I would be seriously interested in looking out for wrong minded up-and-coming Republics in America if given a tool to allow me to keep track of what is going on.
Certainly you understand political data mining far better than myself. If you could give we advocates for America a real database to identify these people early in the game, we can make sure the ground game is in place before they get a chance to take root.
Well, it sounded good to me, and I would get involved.
;-)
North Carolina. Turning the South Blue!
North Carolina. Turning the South Blue!
Yes and double Yes
Your state chair asked me about creating a NCDP wiki 8 months or so ago, and remains interested in the idea.
This wiki would be your database to compile wingnut info (as you put it) and share it with other folks.
However, previous attempts at doing this have been less than fully successful. I believe that DailyKos did a wiki that kind of died out . . .
But here's the deal, if you and four other people promise to contribute to the project, I'll build it. I can't collect all the data for you, but I can install the platform.
Additionally, I encourage you to use wikipedia as a place to collect accurate encyclopedic information about right-wing operatives.
Let me know who wants me to build the database, and I'll get to building it.
PS: regarding political datamining, I wouldn't call myself an expert (or even a novice) at that, but I'd certainly like to know more.
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The GOP will try to suppress the vote in 2008.
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http://twitter.com/Jerimee
I'll help
For example, this dude, 23 years old, former McHorny field director, just elected to state house in SC.
Or are you just thinking NC folk? There's still all his insiders who then branch out to become "consultants."
News of the 10th district: See Pat Go Bye Bye,
you and funluvn makes 2
I need 3 more
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The GOP will try to suppress the vote in 2008.
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http://twitter.com/Jerimee
You're up to 3 Jerimee
I'll help.
Robin Hayes lied. Nobody died, but thousands of folks lost their jobs.
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Currently lacking a witty signature.
Information Freedom
With the exception of former FCC chairman Michael Powell, Kevin Martin has done more harm to the PUBLIC flow of digital information than just about anyone in government. This blog could not exist without a neutral flow of information across all the privately held routers that make the Internet work. (ala Net Neutrality)
Not to mention the destruction of our free press by relaxing media ownership rules. Now we have fewer sources of news and more Rupert Murdoch's to do the political bidding of right wing war mongers!
YES! I blame Kevin Martin! Without free communications owned by the people we are easily taken to disastrous wars that kill our loved ones and destroy our economy! He has done the bidding of giant corporations that put profit before people.
If you think what Kevin Martin has done is wrong I encourage you to support all Net Neutrality legislation. It will prevent him, and future hacks like him, from messing with our freedom to communicate. That freedom guaranties we are informed and can act appropriately in our democracy.
For example the new US House bill HR 5353 [PDF], aka The Internet Freedom Preservation Act. You can contact your Rep over here. I've already called Rep. Price's office to encourage him to vote YES on this new bill.
Check out this video from SavetheInternet.com.
Internet Bill a Blow to the Gatekeepers
So If Mr. Martin does run in NC I hope someone lets us know. I can't imagine a cause I rather work harder against!