I hadn't focused on the POA -- Rasmussen connection. Very interesting. He bombs out one year, and changes names.
That's very reminiscent of the strategy of football prognosticators. Pick up any pre-season college football or NFL magazine (Street and Smith's, for example), and you'll see page after page of advertisements for betting services which will, for a stiff fee, provide you the names of "sure winners" for each week of the upcoming season. And most of these services (Vegas Hotline, or Coach's Guaranteed Picks, or Pigskin Pro, to make up a few names) will brag about their track records from previous seasons. But of course, those with low success ratios don't take out ads (at least not under the same name) the next year.
He didn't just change names... After that fiasco, his web-site received thousands of outraged e-mails- to his credit, he posted many of them... The web-site (portraitofamerica.com) closed shop soon thereafter.