Accidents Happen: Mike Connell, 45, Dies In Ohio Plane Crash

Submitted by GreyHawk on December 20, 2008 - 15:18

By GreyHawk and Luaptifer, ePluribus Media

Mike Connell, 45, died in a plane crash in Ohio last night.

You may recognize his name -- he was the president of New Media Communications and GovTech Solutions whose one-side-of-the-aisle clients he serviced on both sides of the government firewall.  In concert with SmartTech Corp. and former Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell (now aspiring to the national GOP Chair), his concurrent architecture of Ohio elections and GeorgeWBush.com moved ePluribusMedia researchers on Election Night 2006 to place Connell's companies on the blurry map of outsourced political governance. 

ePluribusMedia has been reporting on Mr. Connell and some of his various and sundry contracts and activities for a while now.  One of the most recent stories can be found here:

VR Calls on John McCain to Fire Michael Connell for Covering Up for Karl Rove in Federal Election Manipulation Lawsuit

Make the jump for a more complete list.

[UPDATE: A comprehensive list of ePluribus work on Mike Connell is available at "Mike Connell: A Trail of Questions At the End of the Road" - luaptifer]

Here are some of the pieces that have been written up over time:

Previous stories

Recent stories

Friends' stories

With a substantial basis in this work, it was little more than a month ago - on the day before the November ballot - that the Ohio election legal team led by Attorney Cliff Arnebeck finally convinced a Federal judge to compel Connell's sworn deposition in matters that could impact results of the 2008 Election (McClatchy News: Computer expert denies knowledge of '04 vote rigging in Ohio).

There are quite a few folks crying foul, and just as many -- perhaps more? -- accusing them of donning (or living inside of) tinfoil hats. Regardless of whether one views the tragic event involving Mr. Connell with a jaundiced eye or not, the fact that Attorney Arneback claims Connell was threatened and which forced him to request protection for him and his family should not be lost on investigators, who need to conduct both a thorough and transparent investigation into what, at the moment, looks like nothing more than tragic accident.

Our thoughts are with Mr. Connell's wife and children during this trying time.

 

See Also:

 

Karl Rove, Mike Connell, GovTech Solutions, New Media Communications, SmartTech
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Comments

susie dow

December 20, 2008 - 18:10

 FYI...The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has not yet listed the accident on its website. Their records are updated daily. It's possible the accident might not show up until Monday. The first column is a link to the NTSB report - which is ultimately what you'll want to read once it becomes available.

http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/month.asp

avahome

December 20, 2008 - 19:41

OMG they are tidying up. I hope this is not true.......

GreyHawk

December 20, 2008 - 23:34

accident is listed?  If their stuff is updated daily, but this happened on a Friday night, does that give 'em a two day window? (That seems to be what you're saying.)

Apparently, only weekdays on the updates...

Welshman

December 20, 2008 - 23:22

You may be interested in this comment to be found here

GreyHawk

December 20, 2008 - 23:32

One of the stories listed in the piece above goes to a RawStory item -- and I know the list above is really incomplete.

I appreciate the note! :)

susie dow

December 20, 2008 - 23:58

I once experienced a loss near Christmas. It just never leaves you. I really feel for his family, especially his kids.

From Mark Crispin Miller:

Pictures of Connell plane crash

More items on Connell's accident

Connell and Rove

VR on Mike Connell's death

Other:

Plane Crashes in Lake Township; Pilot is killed - includes photos

Stark Co. Plane Crash: Who was Mike Connell?

GreyHawk

December 21, 2008 - 00:12

a very hard time right now, particularly with the huge flood of people crying out about conspiracies before any investigation even starts.

Granted, I feel an investigation -- open and thorough -- is certainly warranted; this guy held a lot of strings that made him a weak link in the GOP chain, and if he caved in to investigators they'd be toast.  But other than pushing for "open and thorough" I don't think we should speculate much further.

luaptifer

December 21, 2008 - 15:21

over the years, there are few people whose actions I can consider through filters that only recognize black or white. 

Though it happens that he worked for some of those, Mike and Heather Connell's family trips to El Salvador with the missionary group at their St. Hilary parish has certainly helped to build many houses over several years for poor people who lack their own means.  I can't think of many better ways to educate kids than making that sort of experience a regular part of Connell family life.

Recent comments could not fathom how someone might feel that "It's hard not to be sympathetic" seeing Mike Connell respond to a subpoena before this election.

No matter the history, the face of the guy who made that family was purely human.

It's Christmas, the most poignant time for a Catholic family to lose their Dad. I'm very sorry this tragedy has struck and hope that Mike Connell's family remains safe.

-----
"I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations which dare already to challenge our government in a trial of strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country." - Thomas Jefferson

avahome

December 21, 2008 - 17:19

over on the Akron site:

Pilot who died in crash touched lives of many

rwbeachbum

December 23, 2008 - 18:29

I have experienced how they kill the engine in my car, and all I know is that my car has a clutch and I can pop it to get the car started again and that  an automatic transmission (in the car next to me will roll off to the side of the road) will die and won't start again, I can only assume that the airplane must react like the auto trans.

Also they have hit me in the knees on three occasions with some kind of high tec device and taken my legs out from underneath me. Once in a brace it takes about 3 weeks to be able to walk with out a brace. I would guess that they are at least 300 feet away from my home hiding in the bushes to get me without being seen.

 

susie dow

December 22, 2008 - 15:22

Federal officials probing plane crash that killed GOP consultant Michael Connell
by Michael Sangiacomo/Plain Dealer Reporter December 22, 2008

Republican IT Expert Lost In Ohio Saratoga Crash
Aero News, December 22, 2008

Plane Crash Kills Top GOP Consultant
GOP USA, December 22, 2008

Rocco

December 22, 2008 - 19:43

It doesn't hurt to see what a little tin foil does to the reading.  Seems to me that when a visable hit needed to be made back in the 60s, the preferred method involved gunshots and a hypnotized patsy.  Trouble is, when you keep using the same method, people start to catch on.  Today, I think it is clear now, the preferred method involves a plane crash.  We haven't really caught on yet because we don't know how it's being done, but far too high of a percentage of airplane crashes have a passenger on board that a major crook want's dead.  If you think this comment is too paranoid, then what do you think are today's preferred methods?  Maybe you think that such hits are not made any more?,  Or never were?

Damn right we need investigation, and we really need to figure out how these planes are being hobbled.  Which ones were hobbled?  I don't know.  Any of them could truly be a tragic accident (that's why it's a preferred method).  I just find my sense of the statistics to be alarming and impossible for random coincidence.  In this case, I suspect murderous impunity with a cozy blanket pardon.

Keep up the good work.

GreyHawk

December 23, 2008 - 00:36

It does appear that the accident has at least drawn more attention to Connell's ties to the GOP and to several areas worthy of investigation -- taken together, all those areas make the case that there's been major a$$hatery in the works seem all the more apparent, and to ignore investigating those items is now even less advisable...regardless of whether the accident proves suspicious or synchronistically, coincidentally fortuitous.

For that fact alone -- that the collected tie-ins to possible (probable) coordinated criminal activity will be more seriously investigated -- the accident has at least served to draw attention to areas that the GOP would likely prefer to keep hidden.

intranets

December 23, 2008 - 13:16

Can we please remove any of these idiot comments talking about plane tampering.

 

There is no evidence or even suspicious circumstances involved here.  Can't we wait two months for the NTSB investigation?  Or let me guess, they are in on it also?  I have no tolerance for these conspiracy losers who are throwing out speculation not based in facts.

 

Connell was not scheduled to testify anywhere and there is no evidence he would ever cooperate with any testimony.  (journalists acting as vultures do not count as credible).  The only speculation about threats to Connell come from anonymous tipsters, though I have heard some names might now be know but these are not public anywhere.

Connell did not run out of gas, though it appears possible he might have been running low.  Unless you are going to argue the gov't used their weather manipulation machine, it appears this was an unforunate few minutes that combined bad weather, instrument approach and transition from day to night.  Connell was ILS certified in 2006, but I'm not sure how experienced he was and how many night landings he had performed.   It appears there was a transition to low cloud ceiling and low visibility in the minutes around his crash.

rwbeachbum

December 23, 2008 - 23:21

Ok lets say that this was just an accident.

I am telling you that I have been stalked by agents, shot at and my car hit by agents and have tried to make police reports in four states. and  to as many as 8 Govt. agencies and have yet to have anyone offer to look at the evidence I have that would incremenate the govt. I have tried to report to my local city, state and national ageicies. only the TSA looked into my evidence and the stoped flights from London for 2 weeks a few years ago on christmas eve.

I have also been on a commercial airline when I was being assulted by an unknown microwave or some other type of frequency to the point the airline requested a wheelchair for me to disembark from the craft.

 

 

 

 

 

Newshound2

December 25, 2008 - 20:48

http://www.bradblog.com/?p=6769

 

 

 

Sorry ,internets but your are very wrong.

Listen to the audio for your self.

 

 

 

luaptifer

December 31, 2008 - 21:17

for myself, surely, but also on behalf of other folks who've done and are doing great work in bringing this -- larger -- story into the sunlight where it belongs.  Thanks!

Regarding Intranets' intent, we share one of my larger concerns which is that, now that a bright light is focussed where it should be, those who want to keep it in the dark are not gifted with the means to undermine the facts being investigated and the story being fully told.

I think Intranets intends that eP members be as careful as we've been since creating this effort.  Although writing on this group blog, the Community site, is not subject to the same fact-checking and editorial consideration as eP Journal articles, the credibility of writers for both sites comes from its basis in logic and fact. 

What Intranets wants is that folks addressing the plane crash to do so carefully.  Beyond the fact that a man has died who left a family presumably having nothing to do with the daily business of Mike Connell, the parties with whom he was associated made much of their business invalidating partisan and policy opposition by any means necessary. 

Karl Rove is the most famous, who'd gleefully accept a gift of his opponent's Achilles Heel while calculating the best way to blame the victim for crimes of Rove's commission.  Attention to facts and being sensitive to family needs helps keep a bright light shining without handing a noose to those who want to hang us with it.

 

-----
"I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations which dare already to challenge our government in a trial of strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country." - Thomas Jefferson

carol white

January 1, 2009 - 08:25

For too long the rule of law and the constitution has been flouted in "these United States." I believe it is important for us to establish a standard of truth and justice. It is for that reason that I am interested in seeing Blagojevich get justice even if he is a sleeze and a low life. It's time (actually long over due) to end retaliatory judgement by fueled by media,-generated hysteria, and relying upon appearance and character assassination. That was the whole Republican MO against the Clintons (who are not my favorite people, especially him). Like using his philandering, which I certainly found disdainful, to be a High Crime and Misdemeanor worthy of impeachment.

carol

avahome

December 31, 2008 - 19:31

retrieval of Mr. Connell's body....and I don't know why. I haven't read anything that satisfies my question. But I came across this article in Ohio.com trying to correct info and don't forget to read the comments as there are links.

Correction attempt in fatal plane crash Report says Bath Twp. pilot tried to ascend, declared emergency in foggy, misty weather

The pilot of the single-engine plane that crashed in Lake Township on Dec. 19 had attempted to correct his approach to Akron-Canton Airport.

The pilot attempted to head north and climb when he declared an emergency, according to a federal report.

The private Piper Saratoga crashed in a residential neighborhood beside a vacant home, killing Michael Connell, 45, of Bath Township.

The preliminary report of the National Transportation Safety Board, which was released today, does not state a cause of the accident or whether Connell had further communication with the airport tower after declaring an emergency.

I'm certain this article will disappear soon........but I will try to put up a link to raw story.

rawstory an the latest on NTSB report.