A reader did some sleuthing when presented earlier with the question of who was paying for an ad buy of at least $18,000 to support the Alabama Accountability Act:
He writes:
Oh, what a tangled web we weave…
So, alabamaaccountability.com/ is owned by Domains by Proxy LLC, a company that has already been identified as engaging in troubling activities (in particular in the political domain, seehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domains_by_Proxy)
The organizations featured on Alabama Accountability’s website as “supporters” are Heritage Foundation, the Alabama Policy Institute, and The Business Council of Alabama. We already know enough about Hertitage – and hope someone around here from Alabama might chime in. The Alabama Policy Institute is lead by Gary Palmer, who is a self-described founding director of the State Policy Network – a subsidiary of ALEC. Their policy director, Cameron Smith, most recently worked for Rep. Jeff Sessions (R-AL). Alabama Policy Network likes charters, vouchers, anti-union, and public funding for religious school.
In the article, two board members of Alabama Accountablity are mentioned, Kate Anderson and Ashley Newman. Is this the same Ashley Newman who is on the Board of Directors of Reform Alabama (http://reformalabama.org/about-us/board-of-directors/)? This org supports charter schools, merit pay for teachers, and teacher ed accountability based on teacher “performance.” And is Kate Anderson the same one profiled here http://yellowhammerpolitics.com/blog/power-influence-whos-next/ as someone who raised $5.7M for GOP candidates?
Inquiring minds want to know….
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Domains By Proxy is a company that keeps your personal information out of the public register for domain names. That’s not an indication that they own the website. It’s likely that whoever registered the domain, did so through GoDaddy, and then used Domains by Proxy to hide their information.
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Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III is a US Senator, not a Representative.
While I do not know for sure if the first name was originally for Jefferson Davis or for Thomas Jefferson, it seems pretty clear the Beauregard is for Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard, under whose command the Confederacy opened fire on Fort Sumter, and who was also the commanding general for the Confederacy at First Bull Run / Manassas.
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I stand (sit?) corrected. Thanks for the correction.
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Kudos to your reader’s research skills and persistence. These are the tracks in the snow that usually lead us back to the den in which these neanderthals lurk.
Kind of like the Broad Academy giving awards to its graduates. Few may realize the winners are where they are because of the award giver.
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Click to access E0153226.PDF
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http://www.sglf.org/education-reform
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Domains by Proxy is a service that people pay GoDaddy for to prevent others from finding out who owns the domain name they purchased. So, instead of the site being registered in their own name, it’s registered in the name of Domains by Proxy. It’s stealth ownership, so no one can trace the real owner. (I’ve used the service before myself.)
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Just to clarify, not everyone who uses Domains by Proxy does so for nefarious purposes. I used that service because I created a website for use in my teaching and I’ve always kept my home address private and phone number unlisted for reasons of safety, but without that service, they would have become public.
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I think the lesson here is that you use the service *because* you want to cover your tracks. Sometimes that’s an appropriate move (like protecting personal privacy). Sometimes (as in this case) it raises red flags – as in: so what, exactly, are they trying to hide?
Kind of like my “anonymous” moniker…
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Yes, exactly. And red flags should absolutely go up when stealth ownership is used for a website that is all about, and in the very name of, “accountability.”
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another reason to use Domains by proxy ( i have used them often when i still did business w/ go daddy) is to shield yourself from the endless spam that comes at you once your email is publicly listed.
spammers use bots to spider over webpage contents looking for email address to add to their databases. the more information available, the more valuable the email address is.
so, yes, domains by proxy is a cloaking service but not necessarily an evil service.
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after looking at alabamaaccountability.com – probably the most glaring red light for me is that there is no privacy notice. if you scroll down the page of change .org or any reputable site that asks for your signature, email address, etc – you will see links to privacy notices, TOS, disclaimers or some sort of legal notice. more often than not there is an email address to write for more information.
scroll down on the heritage foundation website you will find the privacy policy and/ or copyright notice.
alabamaaccountability.com has none of these. which would make me suspect that the site is just a phishing site for personal information or designed for some other equally nefarious purpose.
i would not recommend that anyone sign this “petition” – god only knows what they intend to with your information.
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one last find (maybe) – i tweeted you some info about this domain — one domain that is also hosted on the same server is http://thepeopleshoulddecide.com which may be a clue. or not.
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Great job in laying out that scheme.
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