What would CPAC be without the parties, my friends? A dull, insane place, that's what.
One of the premiere CPAC parties of the year is BlogBash, thrown by an organization known as the National Bloggers' Club to raise funds and set narratives for the coming political fights ahead. Until this week, the National Bloggers' Club was headed up by Karl Rove stooge Ali Akbar. Its primary purpose was to attract any and all conservative sycophants looking to suck up to those very bloggers to amplify their 2016 message and give them traction they neither deserve nor earn with legitimate ideas.
Rick Perry was in attendance, as was Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, Allen West and Cathy McMorris-Rodgers of SOTU response fame. And like Allen West in the clip above, they all offered their congratulations and exhorted the troops to keep on polluting the blogosphere with their nonsense narratives.
The new resolve on the part of conservative billionaires to be more 'hands on' and dictate the political direction of those they support was on display not only at CPAC, but also at BlogBash, bringing it a little extra shine. Phil Kerpen of American Commitment signed on to the event and perhaps even tossed a few billionaire bucks their way for the privilege of announcing Grifters Blogger and Activist of the Year.
If you want to understand how craven this group is, consider this: Their "activist" award was given to white nationalist Robert Stacy McCain, for his seriously creepy series on underage lesbians.
Blogger of the Year was William Jacobson at Legal Insurrection, who received his award and a congratulatory tweet from the Americans for Prosperity Foundation. Jacobson joins such conservative luminaries as Michelle Malkin and Mary Beth Ham in the Grifter Blogger Hall of Fame.
As a party, it was a rousing success. As a fundraiser, perhaps not so much. While Governor Rick Perry spent some time pandering to the crowd, the state he governs shut down Ali Akbar's National Bloggers' Club legal entity along with a couple of others for nonpayment of their taxes and required state fees. It seems they couldn't find him to deliver the bill, and Akbar couldn't be bothered with silly things like corporate filings when he has grifting blogging to do.
Texas sells themselves as a business-friendly state, but business taxes are higher there than many other states. They're also not quite as friendly when businesses don't pay taxes or fees to stay in business. And so it came to pass that Thursday night Ali Akbar and friends were clinking glasses, palling around with their billionaire bucks buddies, and raising funds for an entity which no longer is in his control:
According to the state of Texas, the National Bloggers Club did not belong to Akbar while it was fundraising for the 2014 CPAC Blog Bash party at the organization’s Rally.org page. Held last night, and hosted by Akbar associate Bill Murphy, the party featured Texas Governor Rick Perry and Tea Party Patriots President Jenny Beth Martin, also of Texas. We hope the attendees enjoyed themselves, because even though Akbar tried to publicly spin off the franchise, last night’s event was probably the last time that any organization called “the National Bloggers Club” will ever hold a party at the premiere conservative conference. (Read on...)
Oh, ouch. And wait, there's more, too. This organization has been presented as a 501c3 non-profit organization. You know, the type of organization that conservatives are howling about in their 'non-scandal' scandalmongering. Except it's not.
Here is the letter in which Akbar announced the creation of the NBC, asked for donations, and called it a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. In fact, he incorporated the NBC in Texas as a non-profit, and collected donations as a non-profit, but he has never actually applied for legal non-profit status with the IRS.
What these bloggers did, particularly the likes of Robert Stacy McCain and Co, was to use their standing with grifter Tea Party politicians and astroturf organizations to smear people. Akbar and friends also orchestrated many behind-the-scenes strategies to gin up controversies and 'scandals' where none existed.
The simplest, but least charitable explanation for Akbar’s neglect is that he has not been filing taxes or paperwork on any of these business properties in order to hide the assets accrued in those business accounts from the IRS. As we have reported, Akbar is an associate of the Leadership Institute, which trains conservative activists in “how to beat the IRS.” He also ran the Groundswell email listserv that propelled the fake IRS scandal in Congress. We have said all along that Akbar is a feature of the conservative movement, not a bug, and that conservative politics are rife with fraud.
Ya think? Bloggers bought with billionaire bucks corrupt? Who'd have ever guessed such a thing? And what will those billionaires do when they find out they've given money to entities which are no longer controlled by their puppets?
Update: Look who showed up for the "briefing"! None other than Phil Kerpen and Ralph Reed. Grifters gotta grift.
Blogger briefing with @Andrew_Langer, @kerpen and @ralphreed. Talking about #IRS. #cpac2014 #blogbash pic.twitter.com/97g7bSzJk2
— Ali A. Akbar (@ali) March 7, 2014
