Friday 16 April 2010

The secrets of the SarahPAC payroll: Meet Kim Daniels, "evangelical" lawyer and crusader against healthcare reform

In trying to unravel the secrets of the SarahPAC payroll, Kathleen yesterday made a fascinating discovery.

As was reported in our previous comprehensive guest post by mxm about SarahPAC's financial filings for the first quarter of 2010, SarahPAC paid in total the amount of $ 21,000 in the first quarter of 2010 to a woman called Kim Daniels.

But who is Kim Daniels?

Let's first have a look first at her receipts from SarahPAC:

Kim Daniels - $ 7000 - Jan 4 - 2010


Kim Daniels - $ 7000 - Feb 1 - 2010


Kim Daniels - $ 7000 - March 1 - 2010

Therefore we know that Kim Daniels received three payments of $ 7,000 each - on January 4, February 1 and March 1, 2010.

She received the money for "Consulting, State, Local and Federal Issues", and "consulting/issues and political".

Please note that this report of SarahPAC for the first quarter 2010 with the itemized receipts can be downloaded HERE. All filed reports of SarahPAC can be accessed HERE.

So who is Kim Daniels?



So what does the Thomas More Law Center do? According to their website, they are "The Sword and Shield for People of Faith". Can they be more precise? Yes, they can! Fortunately, several years ago, the Thomas More Law Center made a promotional video and explained EXACTLY what they are doing and what their ideological and religious background consists of.

This is a must-see video - be ready for a truly breathtaking "tour de farce" through American history - and you will meet some "familiar faces" as well. This video is much more revealing than "words on paper" could ever be:


So, there we have the Christian fundamentalists again, who are amongst Sarah's most favorite comrades. Rick Santorum and Pat Buchanan make notable guest appearances. You won't find THAT in Pat Buchanan's resume on the MSNBC website!

Now comes an even more interesting part:

What does the Thomas More Law Center currently do?

Their website proudly tells us:

Thomas More Law Center Asks Court to Stop Enforcement of the Individual Mandate of Health Care

April 08, 2010

ANN ARBOR, MI – In an effort to expedite a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on the constitutionality of the individual mandate provision of the newly enacted health care reform act, today, the Thomas More Law Center (TMLC), a national public interest law firm based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, filed a motion in Federal District Court for a preliminary injunction, requesting the court to enjoin the enforcement of the individual mandate provision of the law.

Moments after the health care bill was signed into law by President Obama on March 23, 2010, TMLC filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of itself and four Michigan residents who object to being forced by the federal government to purchase health care or face a federal penalty. The basis for the lawsuit and the motion is that Congress exceeded its authority under the Constitution by mandating that private citizens purchase health care coverage or face a penalty.

Richard Thompson, President and Chief Counsel for TMLC, commented, “If Congress can use the Commerce Clause to force people to purchase insurance based on the mere fact that they exist or face federal penalties, then there is no limit to the power of Congress. Our case is about the constitutional limits of our federal government. Everyone agrees the health care system needs reform. But that doesn't mean Congress is allowed to violate the Constitution in the process.”


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Well, "Domino's Pizza" will never be the same again...

Quote:

Founded six years ago with seed money from conservative Catholic philanthropist Tom Monaghan, the Thomas More Law Center is named after the patron saint of lawyers...
Monaghan, who founded Domino's Pizza, footed the law center's operating costs for a number of years, shelling out as much as $1.5 million annually. Now the firm operates on its own at Domino's Farms, supported by 50,000 donors, Thompson said.

Beyond this initial donation, between 2001 and 2004 Monaghan's Ave Maria Foundation provided an additional $4,099,712.00. To say that Monaghan has a stake in TMLC's success would be an understatement.


(h/t Older_Wiser)

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More background info by Leah Burton from "godsownparty" HERE.

Quote by Leah Burton:

Thomas More Legal Center is a particularly pernicious group that was founded by ultramontane Catholic Thomas Monaghan (who also funded the Army of God-linked Operation Rescue when he was CEO of Domino’s and who now is trying to set up an ultramontane-Catholic-only gated community in Florida).

One of the more notorious cases Thomas More Law Center has been involved in was Planned Parenthood vs American Coalition of Life Activists. (ACLA, of note, was the group behind the Neal Horsley “Nuremburg Files”–an Army of God-authored hit-list of clinic workers and their families, including dossiers of travel, personally identifying info including license plate registration info and surveillance of homes, and so on; when a clinic worker would be assassinated by an Army of God domestic terrorist, their name would be struck through. It’s widely considered among researchers in anti-abortion domestic terrorism that the ACLA operated as a barely legal wing of the Army of God domestic terror network.) Planned Parenthood eventually brought a RICO suit (under the then-new FACE Act); Thomas More Law Center defended ACLA. (ACLA lost, and they were forced to take the material down and disband. The content has since been mirrored on another Army of God-linked site at christianliberty.net; the site owner is a close associate of David Leach, himself linked with Scott Roeder and a similar “Nuremburg Files”-esque website that explicitly targeted Dr. George Tiller and workers at his clinic.)

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What services did Kim Daniels provide to SarahPAC that would justify the payments? As so often, we can only take educated guesses. TPM reported in February 2010 that apparently Kim Daniels "prepares a daily briefing for Palin" and is "now Palin's personal domestic policy czar".

What we DO know is that extremists from all directions - neocons (Orion Strategies - Randy Scheunemann), evangelicals etc. - are heavily featured on the SarahPAC payroll.

It's a shame that Sarah doesn't see the irony in her support for these "healthcare crusaders" - because, as everyone knows, her grandson Tripp happily receives government healthcare in Alaska. If it's good enough for Tripp, it should be good enough for everyone. I wonder what Jesus would say to all that.
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