Kelly Matthews

From the page: "At Salon, Joe Conason highlights some important details from the background of Mel Sembler, the Florida strip-mall mogul who is financing â€oeKeeping America Safe.” That foundation, managed by Bill Kristol and Liz Cheney, is now running ads designed to convince Americans that they face imminent threat of death at the hands of terrorists because Barack Obama has banned the use of torture. " - Kelly Matthews

Sembler is best known as a Florida shopping center magnate and Republican fundraiser whose success in amassing funds for the Bush family won him two ambassadorial appointments. Such patronage is a sordid aspect of national politics, but seems trivial when compared with the truly dark side of Sembler's biography. Long before he achieved prominence in national politics, he was the driving force in the "boot camp" movement that popularized the use of psychological and physical abuse of "troubled" children and teenagers. - Kelly Matthews

Sammie Monroe's story. - Kelly Matthews

From the page: "You've been happily married for years, weathering life's slings and arrows (death of a child, thwarted political ambitions), and now you must do the unthinkable - tell the world you're the Baby Daddy. Former Democratic Sen. John Edwards' recent revelation that he is the father of his mistress's daughter surprised almost no one, but it was the tail end of a tawdry chapter in the life of a one-time presidential hopeful. " - Kelly Matthews

From the page: "GOP fund-raising heavyweight and two-time U.S. Ambassador Mel Sembler â€" the man whose company is pushing for $132 million worth of tax credits to build a â€oeMega-mall” in Jasper County â€" has a corporate development record littered with bad deals for the government entities who were foolish enough to do business with him." - Kelly Matthews