I mentioned earlier this morning that the SF Chronicle managed to find the most non-redneck astroturf rednecks I could imagine. Well, Peter from Firearms & Freedom, did some digging and inspired me to do some more digging as well. Over IM, here’s a few more facts about the supposed Rednecks for Obama that we’ve found:

• They registered their domain through a proxy.
• They list a mailing address for merchandise at an address in Pennsylvania while claiming to be in Missouri.
• The mailing address is a box of some kind. Based on the address style, I would have assumed it was something like a Mail Boxes Etc., but the only business that Google turns up at that address is an Allentown, PA deli known as The Philosopher’s Stone.
• Peter pointed out that it could be an office building. True, but it does seem awfully strange that only one company would show up at the building address if it’s a large building.
• So I pulled up the Google satellite map and realized something. I’ve been to that part of Allentown twice in the last month. Sebastian & I went looking for a place to eat and drove around Allentown. Part of why we decided to move on out of Allentown was because that area had multiple Obama offices and my car had McCain gear on it and in it. We decided my car might not be safe.
• One of the multiple Obama offices in downtown Allentown just happens to be in the exact same building.

At this point, the evidence suggests that the Obama campaign is behind the Rednecks for Obama effort. It took Peter & I a few minutes of Googling just to come up with this information to expose them for the astroturf that they are, and yet no one at the San Francisco Chronicle is capable of doing any research into them at all.

Oh, and then there’s the supposed founders who have told the media they just got politically active last year.

Tony Viessman, 74, and Les Spencer, 60, got politically active last year when it occurred to them there must be other lower income, rural, beer-drinking, gun-loving, NASCAR race enthusiasts fed up with business as usual in Washington.

They were just suddenly hit with inspiration! Oh, except the weren’t.

See, Tony has been involved in politics for a while now. He’s been making donations of at least $200 or more to Democrats since July 25, 1998. And we don’t know how much he’s given to federal candidates under that amount which is typically his M.O. A sampling of the supposedly “average redneck”’s giving history:

Federal

1. Tony Heckemeyer for Congress, Democrat, 1998 – $250
2. Nancy Farmer for Senate, Democrat, 2004 – $200
3. Claire McCaskill for Senate, Democrat, 2006 – $450

State (records only go back to 2002)

1. Jay Nixon for Governor, Democrat, 2008 – $550
2. Robin Carnahan for Sec. of State, Democrat, 2008 – $250
3. Robin Carnahan for Sec. of State, Democrat, 2007 – $250
4. Jay Nixon for Governor, Democrat, 2006 – $500
5. Claire McCaskill for Governor, Democrat, 2004 – $400
6. Robin Carnahan for Sec. of State, Democrat, 2004 – $50

I don’t know any rednecks who give hundreds of dollars in political donations each year, do you? I also don’t know how any reporter could write that this man just suddenly became sick of Washington politics last year and decided to get involved when he has a 10-year history of making sizable donations.

Ultimately, these guys are neither redneck, nor are they suddenly inspired. They are Democratic donors and volunteers of at least 10 years. They appear to be funded by Obama, even having their donations and merchandise sales funneled through one of his offices.

And if the media had any desire to do their jobs, they would have known this and reported it.

UPDATE: A defender of the group came on claiming that I was wrong. Except she left an IP address. And guess where it comes from? Allentown, Pennsylvania, the location of the Obama office and the source of all of their sudden merchandise.

No obviously related posts.