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Recent Appearances... Rantburg

Home Front: Politix
Fake, but Accurate: How MSM Helped Elect Bush
2006-03-01
President Bush, for the first time, is hailing the rise of the alternative media and the decline of the mainstream media, which he now says “conspired” to harm him with forged documents. “I find it interesting that the old way of gathering the news is slowly but surely losing market share,” Bush said in an exclusive interview for the new book “Strategery.” “It’s interesting to watch these media conglomerates try to deal with the realities of a new kind of world.”
The only problem with that is that us new media depend on the old media to gather the actual raw news. I say good riddance to the pseudonews organs, but there are also real reporters out there, and they should be considered a precious resource.
For example, journalist Dan Rather was forced out of his anchor chair at CBS News after bloggers revealed he had used forged documents to criticize Bush’s military record in September 2004. The forgeries, which Bush now calls a conspiracy, ended up helping his re-election campaign, he acknowledged in the Oval Office interview.
Bush is merely being accurate in his terminology. It's hard to accidentally forge documents. You can misinterpret, you can be wrong in your analysis, but when it comes to actually typing up what you want to report you're conspiring. By the way, whatever happened to Lucy Ramirez? I was so looking forward to hearing from her.
“It looks like somebody conspired to float false documents,” he said. “And I was amazed about it.
"I couldn't believe they'd be that stoopid. Normally, when somebody's hatching that sort of a plot they preserve some sort of plausible deniability. Rather really led with his chin!"
"I just couldn’t believe that would be happening [and] then it would become the basis of a fairly substantial series of news stories.”
"I said, 'Rove, you're a friggin' genius!' Imagine my surprise when he told me they'd done it themselves, without his help!"
He added: “Then there was a backlash to it. I mean, a lot of people were angry that this could have happened. A lot of Americans are fair people and they viewed this as patently unfair. So in a funny way, I guess it inured to our benefit, when it was all said and done.”
"So all I have to say is, 'Thanks, Dan. You really hosed that one, didn't you?' Oh, and a big 'Thanks!' to Mary Mapes, too. Dan couldn't have done it without her help."
The episode, known as “Memogate,” inoculated Bush against further scrutiny of his National Guard record for the duration of the presidential campaign. “It also, frankly, gave us an opportunity, frequently, when things came out in the media that we didn’t believe or didn’t like, to say, ‘It’s another CBS story,’ ” said Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman, who was the president’s campaign manager. “I mean, it gave us a serious response to bad news.”
"Talk about political manna from heaven! We were rollin' in it!"
Memogate was initially expected to harm the president, but it ended up backfiring spectacularly on the press. “The guy that it hurt most was Dan Rather and the executives at CBS,” said White House strategist Karl Rove in an interview for “Strategery.”
"Nurse! Bring the oxygen tank! Karl's talking about Rather, and he's lost his breath laughing again!"
“It further disgraced a network which is third in ratings and, if you look at the demographics of their consumers, it’s like 70 percent Democrat.” Rove said Rather’s eagerness to broadcast obviously forged documents proves he is “no serious reporter.” As for Rather’s insistence, to this day, that the documents are real, Rove said: “That’s really bias.”
"Or maybe wishful thinking. Nobody takes him seriously anymore since he move to Lalaland."
Memogate has helped accelerate the decline of the mainstream media, generally defined as CBS, NBC,ABC, The New York Times and other establishment news outlets. There has been a corresponding rise in popularity of the alternative media, which includes free daily newspapers, the Fox News Channel, talk radio, the Drudge Report Web site and a host of Web logs, or blogs.
Keep in mind that with the partial exception of Fox News, all of those sources use raw news provided by AP, AFP, Rooters, and UPI. Even when we're mining the foreign press, much of what we bring back we could have taken from the day's wire service story. Asharq al-Aswat, KUNA, Beirut Daily Star, and Pak Daily Times actually carry news before it hits the wires, but if we didn't mine them most of what we carry would eventually end up there, if a bit garbled.
“I think what’s healthy is that there’s no monopoly on the news,” Bush said. “There’s competition. There’s competition for the attention of, you know, 290 million people, or whatever it is. And the amazing thing about this world we live in is that there’s a kind of free-flowing, kind of bulletin board of ideas and thoughts out there in the ether space, sometimes landing on somebody’s desk and sometimes not, but always available. It’s a very interesting period.” Having long been pilloried by the mainstream media, Bush now finds the rise of the alternative media nothing less than revolutionary. “It’s the beginning of the 21st century; it also happens to be the beginning of — or near the beginning of — a revolution in newsgathering and dissemination,” he said. “Not
in newsmaking — that tends to be pretty consistent.”
Translating the hodge-podge of press releases that are the raw material of most news becomes the hard part. Even as a hardworking member of the alternative media, I don't have that much patience. I could maybe handle the part about hanging around the bar in a hotel in Baghdad drinking gin and tonic, and maybe the part about occasionally riding around with the infantry and taking notes, but not the press releases."
Rove considers Memogate a watershed in the rise of the alternative media.
"That was where an entire industry shot itself in the foot and then ignored the bleeding. It was wonderful!"
“The whole incident in the fall of 2004 showed, really, the power of the blogosphere,” he said in his West Wing office.
Charles Johnson, take a bow!
“Because in essence, you had now an army of self-pointed experts looking over the shoulder of the mainstream media and bringing to bear enormously sophisticated skills.” Still, Rove cautioned that the Internet’s political potential has a darker side. “There is so much ugliness and viciousness and fundamental untruths that the blogosphere transmits,” he lamented. “It also is a vehicle for ugly rumors, for scurrilous personal attacks, an avenue for the creation of urban legends which are deeply corrosive of the political system and of people’s faith in it.”
Simple solution: if they don't source their stuff, you can ignore them. There's no reason bloggers should be held to a lower standard than the mainstream press. A fair bloc of it holds to a rather higher standard, and hopefully will continue to do so. Given time, the sourced version — like Rantburg, but also like LGF, Roger Simon, Donald Sensing, Belmont Club, Bill Quick, Kathy Kinsley, Glenn Reynolds, and hundreds of others, will stand in contrast to the fairy tale venom sites. Drudge takes a lot of heat for his occasional inaccuracies, but his stuff looks pretty good when compared to some of the corkers that have appeared in the MSM, quite aside from the obviously egregious Rathergate affair.
Rove said Rather and his producer, Mary Mapes, were gunning for the president and trying to help his challenger, Sen. John Kerry, by broadcasting the forged documents in the heat of the presidential campaign. “From her body language and his body language, their enthusiasm for this story was in large measure fed by the belief that they were playing a constructive and perhaps determinative role in the presidential campaign,” Rove said of Mapes and Rather. “They made a decision in this instance — I think quite prematurely and quite unfairly — to pursue a story that attacked the president. And I thought it was, to me, one of the most incredible examples of how fundamentally unfair it was.”
"Then it blew up in their faces. It wasn't one of those little blowups that you can explain away, a few bits of egg on your face but your dignity still intact. This was the big blowup, where the entire nation was watching while a handful of bloggers pulled their pants down and shoved them over in the schoolyard. Not only did they get dirt rubbed in their faced, but the bloggers made 'em cry. Kinda makes you just smack your lips and say "Yes! There is a God! And one of his commandments is not to bear false witness! And he does have a sense of humor!'
Rove expressed astonishment that CBS ignored the warnings of document experts hired by the network to authenticate the National Guard memos. “It goes back to the failure of the mainstream media, in this instance, to honor their own experts,” he said. Rove is not the only senior Bush adviser who considers the mainstream media biased against the conservative president. White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card was outraged that the TV networks refused to declare Bush the winner on Election Night, even after all the votes were counted in the pivotal state of Ohio and it became obvious Kerry could not win. “Some of the talking heads,” Card said, “were rooting for a crisis in Ohio. It wasn’t just that they were afraid to admit we had won.” Card became particularly incensed when Bush’s Ohio lead reached 120,000 votes, which was mathematically insurmountable. “Nobody wanted to call it so that we had won,” he said. “It was like,
c’mon,are they just afraid to say it?”
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Africa North
Two Dead, Hundreds Wounded in Egypt Voting
2005-12-07
ZAGAZIG, Egypt -
... where nobody ever walks in a straight line...
Police fired tear gas and rubber bullets at crowds trying to break through blockades of polling stations in an opposition stronghold Wednesday, the final day of parliamentary elections, and two people were killed and hundreds were wounded.
And a wonderful time was had by all, except for the dead guys...
Government supporters armed with machetes alighted from a police armored car in this Nile Delta city and attacked supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood, the government's main rival in the voting.
Bringing in the brownshirts to do the dirty work
The two deaths occurred in the northern town of Damietta, said Dr. Mohammed Balboula of Damietta Public Hospital.
"They're dead, Jim!"
The Interior Ministry confirmed the two deaths and accused the Brotherhood of instigating riots in Damietta.
"Yeah! They attacked our machete-wielding brownshirts!"
The statement indicated the police had nothing to do with the fatalities because the men were killed by live ammunition and the police in Damietta did not use firearms.
"So y'see, they musta shot each other!"
Uh huh
Police also cordoned off polling stations in the southern city of Sohag, frustrating hundreds trying to vote.
"We're closed! Beat it! Go vote someplace else?"
"Where?"
"Try Argentina!"
The deaths raised to four the number of people killed in political violence since the elections began Nov. 9. Police in Cairo said about 600 people were wounded in election violence Wednesday, and more than 80 people were arrested.
"Ow! Ow! Ooooow!"
"Shuddup! Into the paddy wagon wit' yez!"
Earlier, Interior Ministry spokesman Ibrahim Hammad said "the election process is going normally," apart from 10 polling stations where he accused Brotherhood "thugs" of causing disturbances.
"Those bastards keep hitting our truncheons with their heads!"
Hammad said the police are protecting the judges who supervise polling stations "and helping the voters to reach the ballot box." But Associated Press reporters in Zagazig, 50 miles northeast of Cairo, and Sohag, 240 miles south of the capital, saw security forces blocking voters from reaching the polls.
"'Scuse me, officer! Couldja move aside so I can vote?"
"Beat it!"
AP photographer Amr Nabil was wounded in Zagazig and hospitalized in Cairo.
"Oooow!"
"Oh, Amr! That hadda hurt!"
Egypt's three-stage elections, which began in November, have been plagued by increasing violence as police and government supporters try to put down a strong showing by the outlawed Brotherhood, which so far has increased its presence in parliament fivefold. Independent monitors and human rights groups have reported numerous irregularities, including busing of state employees to polling stations, tampering with ballot boxes, blockading of polling stations, and bribing, intimidating and attacking voters.
"Hey! Dis is Egypt! What's so irregular about dat?"
The United States sharply criticized the violence, including "intimidation and harassment" and abuse of monitors and voters by Egyptian authorities. "We've seen a number of developments over the past couple weeks during the parliamentary elections that raise serious concerns about the path of political reform in Egypt," State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said Tuesday. "Clearly, these actions send the wrong signal about Egypt's commitment to democracy and freedom, and we see them as inconsistent with the government of Egypt's professed commitment to increased political openness and dialogue within Egyptian society."
Maybe it's the "wrong" signal, but it's an accurate signal. Lucy Ramirez would understand.
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Home Front: Politix
Prosecutor In CIA Leak Case Casting A Wide Net
2005-07-27
Edited for new material: The special prosecutor in the CIA leak probe has interviewed a wider range of administration officials than was previously known, part of an effort to determine whether anyone broke laws during a White House effort two years ago to discredit allegations that President Bush used faulty intelligence to justify the Iraq war, according to several officials familiar with the case. Prosecutors have questioned former CIA director George J. Tenet and deputy director John E. McLaughlin, former CIA spokesman Bill Harlow, State Department officials, and even a stranger who approached columnist Robert D. Novak on the street.
Lucy Ramirez?
In a strange twist in the investigation, the grand jury -- acting on a tip from Wilson -- has questioned a person who approached Novak on Pennsylvania Avenue on July 8, 2003, six days before his column appeared in The Post and other publications, Wilson said in an interview. The person, whom Wilson declined to identify to The Post, asked Novak about the "yellow cake" uranium matter and then about Wilson, Wilson said. He first revealed that conversation in a book he wrote last year. In the book, he said that he tried to reach Novak on July 8, and that they finally connected on July 10. In that conversation, Wilson said that he did not confirm his wife worked for the CIA but that Novak told him he had obtained the information from a "CIA source."

Novak told the person that Wilson's wife worked for the CIA as a specialist in weapons of mass destruction and had arranged her husband's trip to Niger, Wilson said. Unknown to Novak, the person was a friend of Wilson and reported the conversation to him, Wilson said.
Just happened to bump into a "friend" of Wilson on the street, who just "happened" to ask about yellowcake? And notice, the only person talking is Wilson.
Novak and his attorney, James Hamilton, have declined to discuss the investigation, as has Fitzgerald.
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Home Front: Culture Wars
Bee Can't Verify 43 Sources in Columns
2005-06-28
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) -- A newspaper investigation of a former columnist for The Sacramento Bee could not verify 43 sources she used in a sampling of 12 years of her work. Diana Griego Erwin resigned May 11 as she came under scrutiny about the existence of people she quoted. She has denied making up information, but Executive Editor Rick Rodriguez said the Bee should have been able to locate the people named in the stories."It kills us that we can't," said Rodriguez, whose comments were included in a story about the investigation published in Sunday's Bee. "We still hope they will turn up, but we're presenting the facts as we found them. Obviously, we feel strongly that we should have been able to find these individuals."
Was one of them named "Lucy Ramirez" by any chance?
Griego Erwin, who has said her resignation was for personal reasons, joined the Bee after a distinguished career at other newspapers. She worked on a project that won a Pulitzer Prize at the Denver Post in 1986 and also won a George Polk award and the 1990 commentary prize from the American Society of Newspaper Editors.
With credits like these, she should be able to find a job at the New York Times. She certainly is qualified
The discrepancies in Griego Erwin's work were discovered after the Bee tightened its anonymous sources policy and questioned whether columnists were given too much latitude. Griego Erwin declined to be interviewed for the Bee's article but responded by e-mail.
"The story has been told and I am sad that The Bee continues to pursue this," she wrote. "Surely there are more important stories out there than another about me. I know there are. Even now, I come across them every day."
But, do you have a source for them?
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Fifth Column
Durbin Revises and Extends Gitmo Remarks
2005-06-17
Edited for new stuff:
WASHINGTON — After a barrage of criticism, Sen. Dick Durbin went to the Senate floor Thursday evening to repeat a controversial statement he made two days earlier and insist he said nothing objectionable. In remarks first expressed on the Senate floor late Tuesday and then re-read verbatim on Thursday evening, Durbin, the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate, read the report of an FBI agent who described treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Among the descriptions, the report noted one case in which a detainee was held in such cold temperatures that he shivered, another in which a prisoner was held in heat passing 100 degrees, one in which prisoners were left in isolation so long they fouled themselves and one where a prisoner was chained to the floor and forced to listen to loud rap music.

Following those remarks, the Illinois senator clarified that he was not comparing U.S. soldiers to Pol Pot, Nazis or Soviet guards, but was "attributing this form of interrogation to repressive regimes such as those that I note. "If this indeed occurred, it does not represent American values. It does not represent what our country stands for, it is not the sort of conduct we would ever condone ... and that is the point I was making. Now, sadly, we have a situation here where some in the right-wing media have said that I have been insulting men and women in uniform. Nothing could be further from truth," Durbin said, following up under questioning by Sen. John Warner, R-Va., that he does not know if the interrogators cited in the FBI report were Americans or not.

Warner, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said he had inquired as to whether the FBI's descriptions are true. "I was trained as a lawyer, many years as a prosecutor dealt with the bureau, have the highest respect. But I do not accept at face value everything they put down on paper until I make certain it can be corroborated and substantiated. "And for you to come to the floor with just that fragment of a report and then unleash the words 'the Nazis,' unleash the word 'gulag,' unleash 'Pol Pot,' I don't know how many remember that chapter, it seems to me that was a grievous error in judgment and leaves open to the press of the world to take those three extraordinary chapters in world history and try to intertwine it with what has taken place, allegedly, at Guantanamo," Warner said.

The military operates under strict guidelines that are widely distributed. Only mild non-injurious physical contact is allowed, such as light pushing. Sleep deprivation is used along with stress positions, but they are limited in time. One knowledgeable official familiar with the memo cited by Durbin as well as other memos said the FBI agent made no such allegation and that the memo described only someone chained to the floor. Anything beyond that is simply an interpretation, the official said.
"Fake, but accurate", Senator? Where did you get those memos, Lucy Ramirez pass them to you at the Chicago Stock Show?
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Home Front: Politix
Reporters worry about VRWC plant among them.
2005-02-15
Hat Tip to DU

Leaders of the White House Correspondents' Association plan to meet with President Bush's press secretary tomorrow to discuss tightening the White House press-credentialing process. The meeting follows the recent uproar over James Guckert, a former White House reporter for the GOP-linked Talon News, who had used the name Jeff Gannon and drawn criticism for asking partisan questions.

Unlike the true mainstream America vitriol that currently flows from the press corp.

Among the potential changes to the credentialing system: tighter restrictions on who can receive daily press passes, such as those Guckert had obtained; and a more active role by the WHCA in approving requests or credentials, which are now handed out solely by the White House Press Office.

Let me see, they want this White House to allow this LLL MSM group to be the gatekeeper of press credentials. Anyone want to guess how that's going to play?

"The consensus is that we should go in there [with McClellan] and get all the information we can on this and see if we can't take what we've learned and develop a unified position on the board of what to do about this," Hutcheson told E&P. "Scott appears to be very open to discussing this. It is a very hard thing to do, to determine who is a journalist and who isn't."

How about we allow question based on Neilson ratings and readership?

Right now, reporters who want a White House "hard pass," which allows them to enter and leave on an ongoing basis, are required to first obtain a congressional press pass. But those who seek a daily press pass to the White House do not need a congressional pass. Guckert had been denied a congressional pass last year after the standing committee determined that Talon News was not a legitimate news organization.

Like CBS is a "legitimate news organization." Hey Dan want to buy some guard documents? I got them from Lucy Ramirez.

Hutcheson said he was hesitant to start barring reporters from the White House unfairly. "My overarching view is that we should be advocates for getting people in the briefing room, not keep them out," he said. "But [the briefings] are an opportunity to get information, not make political statements."

Who is this guy kidding?

The Politburo over at DU has been circling James Guckert's journalistic carcass like they have bagged some really big game with conspiracy on the side. The guy was just as much a journalist as any one at CBS, CNN, NBC, etc, but the problem is that he was OPENLY right-wing and not pretending to be mainstream. The MSM is concerned that they won't be allowed stupid and unanswerable and wholly partisan questions from the left wing media. I loved it when a DU commentator said he was going to apply for creds and then backed out. I guess his voice sounds better in the fever swamp than in the White house press room.
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Iraq-Jordan
The funniest yet -- GI John "Cody" Adams story --
2005-02-02
Toy Soldiers
By Douglas Kern Published 02/02/2005

19 January 2005: The Slinky betrayed us. I should have known. I never trusted him. He was an unstable character, always going back and forth, back and forth, never showing a shred of backbone. "Come, senor, I know the way to the insurgents' headquarters," he rasped. The fact that he was an Arab toy speaking with a stereotypical Spanish accent should have tipped me off. But hindsight is always 20/20. Literally. I can turn my head 360 degrees.

I only knew my men by their code names, but even in that short space of time we shared a bond that only six-inch plastic combatants can truly understand. They were my family, my brothers in petroleum-based products. One night we all melted the tips of our fingers and became plastic brothers.

And I led those brave action figures into the trap.

"My spider-sense is tingling," muttered "Peter Parker," as he flexed his fingers on his M16. We were all on edge, and our quirks were coming to the fore. "Prince Adam" kept waving his weapon in the air, hollering "By the power of Grayskull!" Damn Wiccans. "Hugh Jackman" had huddled deeply into his trenchcoat, whispering "Am I Wolverine or Van Helsing?" to anyone who made the mistake of standing next to him. And "Elmo" kept singing his goofy song. "Elmo loves his rifle/His bullets, too
"

The insurgents caught us by surprise in that deserted Iraqi backyard. BBs perforated the sullen quiet of the hot Iraqi afternoon. Firecrackers sizzled and roared around us in a symphony of extremity-disintegrating horror. Mean little kids stomped us with the hard soles of their brand-new Keds -- weapons of mass destruction. And the gentlest one of us all lost it completely. "Elmo is thinking about genocide!" he screamed, as he unleashed a hail of foam darts upon our adversaries. "Elmo is Death, destroyer of worlds!" War does awful things to toys.

I tried to remember my training. My old drill sergeant, G.I. Joe, had put me through worse than this. "Are you gonna MOR yet, maggot?" he would scream, as he tied me to the wheel of a 10-speed Schwinn. (MOR: Melted On Request.) 'Sir, no, sir!" I would scream, even as the gravel scraped the paint off my face. He pushed me and prodded me, but he made me the action figure I am today. Just before Water Survival training, he gave me a piece of advice I'll always remember: "Son, when you get right down to it, you have no nerve endings." Then he flushed me down the toilet.

A repulsive splatting sound above my head brought me back to the present. "Gas! GAS!" We scrambled in vain for our gas masks as a haze of vaporous death descended upon us. Mustard gas? Try beans and broccoli. The last thing I remember was the leering visage of our hated enemy, the puppet master of al Qaeda, peering down on us.

The CIA lied. The bombs in Bora Bora hadn't killed him after all.

Evil Bert. The legends were true.

24 January 2005: The interrogators were relentless. But I gave them only my name, rank, and UPC code.

They mocked my fear. "It better here than American prison, yes? We read all about atrocities performed on Iraqi action figure POWs."

"What happened at the Island of Misfit Toys," I hissed, "was not policy. That was just some crazy rogue reindeer, screwing around unsupervised. Santa Claus will still be confirmed by 75-80 votes in the Senate."

As I huddle in the shoebox that will soon define the four corners of my world, my thoughts turn to my wife, Barbie; my brother, Fireman Rescue Hero; and my son, Lego Luke Skywalker. I must be strong for them.

I've had to be strong all my life. It's hard to be a poor plastic kid in a video-game world, and even harder when you're an immigrant -- I was made in China. My mother was a Chinese novelty factory and my father was a petroleum by-products distributor who just played around with my mother and then disappeared. Nobody wanted a soldier toy in Clinton's nineties, so I made my way playing minimum-wage gigs like "Thug #3" in the Hudson Hawk action figure line. But after a shameful night of drinking nail polish remover and driving a Mattel remote-control car full of underage Jem sidekicks into a telephone pole, a judge gave me a choice: an Army enlistment, or a Goodwill box. I chose the former.

The elite Action Figure corps took me for my menacing glower, sculpted abs, and gift for languages. After taking several crash language courses at the Army facility in Monterrey, I could speak all the major tongues. Monchichi. Teddy Bear. Cabbage Patch. Smurf.

The rubber bands chafe my wrists, and I haven't had a decent meal from an Easy-Bake oven in days. My Eastern-European-looking guard is clear proof that the Russians are helping the insurgents. He's always shrieking "One! One captured American soldier! Ha ha ha!" Then he counts my grenades, over and over again.

I'll get you for this, Evil Bert.

31 January 2005: Today my captors took my picture outside, in front of a special banner that was deliberately repetitive and misspelled in order to honor the stuttering illiterates of Iraq.

"Is good," said Evil Bert, sounding like a cross between Andy Kaufman and Dr. Nick Riviera. "Now decadent American press will see picture on our website and report that live American soldier held captive. Momentum from election blunted. Boxer-Kennedy win in 2008!"

"No chance, you unibrowed monster," I growled. "There's no way that America's mainstream media would ever fall for such a ruse. The second you post that picture on the Internet, crack investigative teams from the Minneapolis Star-Tribune and The New York Times and, above all, CBS News will be on hand to check facts, verify data, and offer uncompromising insights into the validity of your photograph, even if doing so will force them to lose a potential scoop while indirectly aiding the Bush administration."

"No, no," replied Evil Bert, "American soldier not use humor to build bond between himself and captors. You funny guy, soldier boy, but we still gonna blend you in Cuisinart."

"It doesn't matter what you do, because the validity of those elections still stands. You think all of those blue fingers are manufacturing defects? Iraq has embraced democracy, Mr. What's-Your-Thing-With-Ernie, and the fate of one action figure won't change anything."

Evil Bert grabbed his turban from his head and threw it to the ground. "Screw you, action figure! There was no real election
 the TV footage is all fake! Blue ink is easy to distribute! And election invalid anyway because not enough Sunnis voted. And Supreme Court may call for recount. And New York Times still not convinced. And
and
Jews! All their fault! Everything their fault! Jews! And Ernie only Platonic friend! Backrubs and handholding not any big deal! Ooooh
stupid American!" He stormed off.

1 February 2005: I have bribed a guard to fax this document. (The guard seems to be a hairy Mediterranean fellow with big buggy eyes and a passion for cookies. Strange.) I am sending this fax to the only person I can trust: Lucy Ramirez, somewhere in Texas. If this document appears elsewhere, you'll know that the lying irresponsible blogosphere is to blame.

I've slipped a sharpened staple into my boot. Soon I'll break out of here. I'll get new, better accessories, the kind that aren't legal in the US. Maybe a plastic missile that shoots out of my butt. Yeah, that's the ticket.

I will put out the eyes of Iraqi insurgents with my unsafe features. I will carry on the fight for freedom, one poorly-balanced step at a time. And I will fight for freedom wherever there's trouble.

I am John "Cody" Adam. Soon-to-be-former hostage. American action figure. And damned proud of it.
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Afghanistan/South Asia
Hindu Leader 'Confesses' to Role in Murder
2004-11-30
Police in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu yesterday claimed that Jayendra Saraswathi, the Shankaracharya of Kamakoti Mutt, had confessed to his complicity in the murder of a former associate of the religious establishment.
"I dunnit! I dunnit an' I'm glad!"
Police also added a new sex angle to the case, claiming Saraswathi had unspecified relationship with a woman, whose involvement in the murder also needed to be probed.
See? Cherchez la femme. I'll betcha she's a mysterious lady who wears a veil and packs a .38...
Opposing the bail application filed by Saraswathi, counsel for police told the Madras High Court that Saraswathi had broken down during his custodial interrogation last week and admitted his complicity. In a written affidavit filed by police, the investigating officer claimed Saraswathi was in the habit of having long telephone conversations with Usha, a woman deserted by her husband, who the police said had been provided with a house by Saraswathi in Srirangam, about 300 km from here.
A holy man keeping a mysterious veiled lady in a love nest... Boy, that's never happened before, has it?
"Substantial sums of money had been periodically transferred to her account. She has withdrawn the entire money from her account and is now on the run,'' police said.
"Mr. Marlowe! You've got to help me! I have no one to turn to!"
The police affidavit said there was reason to believe that the Shankaracharya feared that his relationship with the woman would be exposed by Thiru Sankararaman, the manager of the mutt of whose murder the Shankaracharya is accused.
Uhuh. Being blackmailed by the mutt manager, was he? And he got tired of paying...
Police said they had "credible and unassailable material evidence'' of Saraswathi's involvement in the conspiracy to murder Sankararaman. Saraswathi himself had revealed his complicity in clear terms during his custodial interrogation, which was video-taped in full. Police said Sankararaman had moved court, seeking accounts from the mutt for the gold it had acquired for gold plating a chariot for a temple in Kanchipuram. The gold plating was done under the supervision and guidance of Saraswathi. Although 100 kg of gold was bought for the purpose, only 35 kg was used and the remaining 65 kg was unaccounted for.
So now there's a hidden stash of gold, to boot. Try digging under the grape arbor...
Before he was murdered, Sankararaman had been trying to investigate the presence of women in the mutt after 10 p.m., the "irreligious activities'' of the Shankaracharya and the trusts floated by him and also the extravagant lifestyle of his relatives.
"Sankararaman knows too much, Muggsy. Somethin's gotta be done..."
Police also pointed out that Saraswathi, even while in custody, was able to wield enough influence to force two of the key witnesses to retract their confessional statements, and if let out on bail could easily derail the investigation. Judge R. Balasubramaniam, who is hearing the bail application, adjourned the case until today.
He left the courthouse with a shovel...
The Hindu fundamentalist Bharatiya Janata Party reacted sharply to the prosecutor's statement. "Don't read such news. Don't hear such news. This phase will also be over," BJP spokeswoman Sushma Swaraj said. "It is absolutely baseless. Never, never has he confessed to the crime," she said, adding the implication of the religious leader being involved in the murder was a direct affront to Hinduism.
I think Mr. Prosecutor should be careful starting his car. And don't even think about meeting an informant in the dead of night down by the old warehouse — especially if the caller's the Mysterious Veiled Lady...
I wondered where Lucy Ramirez got to
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-Short Attention Span Theater-
Deep Sinister Plot Exposed
2004-11-06
Deep Sinister Plot Exposed
Paging Agent Mulder!
My name is Charles Henry Schoonover and I have the proof that Cleric Abubakar Ba'asyir is being framed by the United States of America. I discovered the proof when I was a college student attending Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas. In the mid 1980's, I transferred from Pan American University in Edinburgh, Texas to Texas A&M University. One of the first things that I did when I moved to College Station, Texas was to volunteer with the Republican Party in Brazos County, Texas.

I am a T-4 paraplegic confined to a wheelchair and, because politicians like to have their photograph taken with a disabled student, I was often able to get into private meetings that I was not supposed to be attending. It was during a private meeting between Vice President George Bush, Sr. and US Senator Phil Gramm that I accidentally picked up their top-secret plan. I thought that it was campaign material. When I got home with the material, I was completely surprised to find out that it was a top secret plan for, among other things, the Gulf War. I read the material in complete disbelief. The next day I went to class and when I came home, all of the material was gone and my life was turned upside down.
I think he landed on his head.
The material absolutely talked about framing Muslim clerics. The charges that have been brought against the cleric were specifically discussed. So was the bombing that the cleric is charged with. There is no question in my mind that the bombing was carried out by Australian agents who were also specifically mentioned in the material. I have spent the last 15 plus years attempting to expose what I discovered but I have also been framed by the same conspirators. For example, soon after they began destroying my life, I was arrested when I tried to ride a bus. I was charged with obstructing a highway.
Larry Smith, who still lives in Bryan, Texas, which adjoins College Station, Texas, can confirm that my life was deliberately destroyed by somebody who wanted to do me harm. He was the only friend of mine who attended my trial for obstructing the highway. Mr. Smith, who owns a bait shop in Bryan, Texas can be located by doing a Google search for "Larry Smith" and "Bait Shop".
Does he have a girl friend named Lucy Ramirez by any chance?
I am willing to testify on behalf of the cleric. I am willing to give your publication all the time necessary to fully explain the information that I was exposed to. I have not been allowed to do so here in the United States. Newspapers will not publish my story, the FBI threatens me with arrest when I approach them to report what I know, and my health is attacked every time that I make an effort to retain an attorney. The same conspirators who are framing the cleric are the same conspirators who have been hounding me.
Perhaps we can take up a collection to buy him some tinfoil?
A sinister, deep-laid plot that involves the cooperation of thousands of people with complete, total security -- broken by a paraplegic who finds the material. Haven't we seen this movie?
Link


Home Front: Politix
Burkett now says he lied about where he got the memos...
2004-09-21
Excerpted from looooong USA Today story...
...In interviews in recent days with USA TODAY, both in person and on the phone, Burkett said he had merely been a conduit for the records purported to be from the private files of Lt. Col. Jerry Killian, one of Bush's former Guard commanders, who died in 1984. Burkett admitted lying to USA TODAY about the source of the documents but said he did not fabricate the papers.
"No, no! Certainly not!"
In earlier conversations with USA TODAY, Burkett had identified the source of the documents as George Conn, a former Texas National Guard colleague who works for the U.S. Army in Europe. Burkett now says he made up the story about Conn's involvement to divert attention from himself and the woman he now says provided him with the documents. He told USA TODAY that he also lied to CBS.
Ahah! Somehow there always has to be a woman involved! A mysterious lady, wearing a veil, perhaps?
Burkett now maintains that the source of the papers was Lucy Ramirez, who he says phoned him from Houston in March to offer the documents.
"M'sieur Burkett! The documents! I must geeve them to you for safekeeping! You will know what to do with them!"
USA TODAY has been unable to locate Ramirez.
"Miss Ramirez regrets
She's unable to lunch today,
Mister!"
When Burkett gave copies of the documents to USA TODAY, it was on the understanding that his identity would not be disclosed. USA TODAY honored that agreement until Burkett waived his confidentiality Monday. "I didn't forge anything," Burkett said. "I didn't fake any documents. The only thing I've done here is to transfer documents from people I thought were real to people I thought were real. And that has been the limitation of my role. I may have been a patsy."
"Yeah! Dat's it! I been set up! Framed, I tells yez! Why, dat floozy!"
The White House on Monday welcomed the network's admission but said it "raised more questions than answers." Communications director Dan Bartlett called for an investigation that includes "whether the president's political opponents were behind these attacks." He added, "Since CBS News and USA TODAY had both obtained these forged documents, we now urge them to lead the way in finding the truth."
Y'mean, like, "Forge ahead"?
White House spokesman Scott McClellan said Bush was told of the CBS statement as he flew to Derry, N.H., for a campaign appearance. McClellan said Burkett "is not an unimpeachable source as was previously claimed. Bill Burkett is a source who has been discredited, and so this raises a lot of questions."
... most of which are easily answerable.
Burkett's own doubts about the authenticity of the memos and his inability to supply evidence to show that Ramirez exists also raise questions about his credibility. Burkett has strong anti-Bush views. He has posted comments on Internet Web sites critical of Bush and has chastised Sen. John Kerry's organization for what he called its inept campaign.
Ummm... I think he just ended up making it look even more inept. When was the last time a campaign got caught up in a forged document scandal?
Burkett's emotions varied widely in the interviews. One session ended when Burkett suffered a violent seizure and collapsed in his chair.
"Nurse! Quick! He's doing it again!"
Earlier, he said he was coming forward now to explain what he had done and why to try to salvage his reputation.
Too late, bub. There went your ambassadorship...
In the past week, Burkett was named by many news reports as the probable source of the documents. "It's time," Burkett said. "I'm tired of me being the bad guy. I'm tired of losing everything we've got," a reference to his financial and health struggles since he left the Guard. Turning to his wife, Nicki, he said: "We've lost it all, baby. We've lost everything." Sitting in a rocking chair in his weathered ranch house south of Baird, Texas, Burkett recounted his continuing efforts — beginning before he was kicked out of discharged from the Texas Army National Guard in 1998 — to clean up what he saw as Guard corruption and mismanagement.
"Liars and thieves, Nicki! They're all liars and thieves!"
"Yes, dear. Would you like another pill?"
He said that activity led to a telephone call in March from Ramirez and her offer to provide documents damaging to President Bush. Burkett said Ramirez told him she had seen him the previous month in an appearance on the MSNBC program Hardball, discussing the controversy over whether Bush fulfilled all his obligations for service in the Texas Air Guard during the early 1970s. "There is something I have that I want to make sure gets out," he quoted her as saying.
"M'sieur Burkett! The documents! I must leave zem wiz you!"
He said Ramirez claimed to possess Killian's "correspondence file," which would prove Burkett's allegations that Bush had problems as a Guard fighter pilot. Burkett said he arranged to get the documents during a trip to Houston for a livestock show in March.
"Awright, baby! I'll be at the livestock show in Houston on the 29th. But they better be good!"
"Zey will be good, M'sieur Burkett! Wear a red rose in your cowboy hat so you weel be recognized!"
"I thought you saw me on the Chris Matthews show?"
But instead of being met at the show by Ramirez, he was approached by a man who asked for Burkett, handed him an envelope and quickly left, Burkett recounted. "I didn't even ask any questions," Burkett said. "Should I have? Yes. Maybe I was duped. I never really even considered that."
"Yes. He was a small man, maybe 18 inches tall, I'd say. He said nothing. Just stuffed the documents into the top of my cowboy boot and left!"
Humm, look anything like Sandy Burger?
By Monday, USA TODAY had not been able to locate Ramirez or verify other details of Burkett's account.
Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego Lucy Ramirez?

"[RING!] USA Today calling! You know anybody named Ramirez?"
"This is Texas. We got mebbe 3 million people named Ramirez. Which one y'want?"
"Lucy Ramirez."
"Oh, well. That's diff'rent. Half that three million's men. That leaves a million and a half women. Half o' them are named Lucy. Pick the one y'want."
Three people who worked with Killian in the early 1970s said they don't recognize her name. Burkett promised to provide telephone records that would verify his calls to Ramirez, but he had not done so by Monday night.
"I... uhhh... musta left 'em in my other pants."
An acquaintance of Burkett, who he said could corroborate his story, said he was at the livestock show on March 3. The woman, who asked that her name not be used, said Burkett asked if he could put papers inside a box she had at the livestock show. Often, she said, friends ask to store papers in her box that verify their purchases at the livestock auction. She said she did not know the nature of the papers Burkett gave her, and he did not say anything about them.
"No. No. Can't say that I did see any leprechauns. Sorry."
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