– Nate Anderson writes about the uncovered attempt of a smear campaign against Wikileaks and its supporters.
– Anti-regime protests have started up again in Iran. I’ve been following the latest on Twitter using the #25bahman hashtag.
– Bryan Gabriel’s trial started up today in Seattle. The background on his case can be found here.
– Sensible Washington’s initiative this year will be I-1135.
This is an open thread. Any and all comments are allowed…
From the article by Anderson, describing a proposal given to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce:
Sounds a lot like the bait piece which CBS and 60 minutes swallowed in 2004.
I’ve long believed that Rove was alerted that CBS was looking for more information on Bush’s Texas Air National Guard service, and had his minions create the false document and alert a select handful of conservative bloggers on how they could prove it to be fake.
Once Dan Rather and CBS swallowed the fake, Rove & Co. accomplished multiple goals:
(a) they discredited the entire 60 Minute piece (which was accurate, only one document was a forgery, but it’s contents were a fair description of the purported author’s beliefs at the time as confirmed by his secretary;
(b) they scared the media away from pursing the story any further;
(c) they brought down Dan Rather, who had been on their “enemies list” since Watergate days; and
(d) they discredited CBS in particular, and the traditional broadcast media in general, which gave Fox News a boost.
The White House Plumber’s operations during the Nixon administration has nothing on the sophistication of Rove’s apparatus using outright lies, rumors, and misrepresentations to distract and confuse the American voters.
Dan Rather may have been on Nixon’s enemies list, but what brought him down was that phony letter about GWB’s flight physical and the Air Force Reserve unit GWB was in. Rather fucked himself royally with that blunder. In short, Dan Rather was, in the end, his own worst enemy.
@3
What rhp6033 is suggesting is that the phony letter was given to Rather by folks trying to discredit him for looking into an otherwise worthwhile news item (in the same way that the folks at HBGary were suggesting in order to discredit Wikileaks).
# 3 & 4: CBS and Rather have been prohibited from talking much about this letter, due to that pesky agreement they had not to reveal the source.
But some sources have indicated a specific individual as the source, and claimed that he had a particular grudge against Bush and CBS should have been more suspicious of him.
But I wonder who gave the letter to that individual?
What first drew my attention to this issue was the speed at which the conservative bloggers pointed out that the font used by the typewriter was just a little too new for the purported date of the letter.
Sure, I might expect that sort of analysis by amateurs after a couple of days. But within a couple of hours? How does one so quickly identify the font, know when that particular model of IBM typewriter was available, and whether it was used by the Texas Air National Guard at the time the letter was purported to have been written? It seems to me that the attack on the letter’s credibility was planned well ahead of the 60-Minute broadcast.
And yes, Rather should have been more careful. His old reporter’s instinct to “get the scoop out before someone else does” didn’t serve him well here. I think he didn’t appreciate the level of sophistication which he was facing, and the prospect that there were probably plants within CBS news which were feeding the progress of Rather’s investigation to Rove’s organization.
# 4: Actually, the part I quoted from was not the attempts to investigate Wikileaks. That was from an auxilary organization seeking to get a contract from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce (a Republican-controlled front group, not to be confused with the various local Chamber of Commerce) to use to attack organized labor and their political groups. They wanted to sell the USCofC on a plan to discredit the labor groups through use of forgeries, etc.
I think one of the reasons this organization couldn’t get any traction in getting contracts with conservative groups is that other Republican-affiliated groups were already five to ten years ahead of them on these strategies. Why hire a relatively new firm, which thinks these tactics are new, when Rove and Roger Ailes have been using them for quite some time now, and are much more sophisticated in the process?
@6
Why hire a relatively new firm, which thinks these tactics are new, when Rove and Roger Ailes have been using them for quite some time now, and are much more sophisticated in the process?
Good question.
All of that misses the point. Rather may have been dumb or greedy for that story. But the facts aren’t in dispute. Bush had daddy kept Bush out of the war. At ANY time Bush could have volunteered to go to Vietnam, but he didn’t. Nor did he just “wait” for the draft. There are three options for chickens or draft dodgers. Run to Canada, join the National Guard (which as you can imagine was VERY difficult at that time), or get “deferments” (like his Vice President, Cheney, did..who said he had “better things to do.” Dying in wars is for little people).
Bush is a phony. Totally made up personality for politics. Pretends to be some sort of cartoonish “common man” when daddy was President, head of the CIA, and grand daddy was Senator. His parents have a ‘compound’ in Maine and neither has a southern drawl, but Bush somehow is a Texas good old boy (he must have not have been raised by his parents, who clearly are NOT “good old boys” but stuffy old super insider connected ivy league educated east cost elites). Bush mocks the “ivy league” or “college liberals” but Bush went to Harvard and Yale…not Northeast Texas Community College.
Just a total sleazy used car salesman phony. The real hero’s are folks like Obama, Carter, or Clinton, those are guys who raised themselves up by THEIR OWN BOOTSTRAPS, had poor/single parents and rose to greatness…not rich spoiled children like Bush who was GIVEN oil companies, baseball teams to play with etc and had daddies friends “help” him become President.
I don’t care if you like or don’t like the politics of Bush, Obama, Clinton or Carter…but Bush wouldn’t have been anything more than an aluminum siding salesmen if he didn’t have a SUPER insider connected family and millions given to him. He never displayed any academic interest, intellectual curiosity or motivation to do anything other than fish and play on his toy ranch.
What I want to know is which cop got the stolen car?
The one that was seized in the arrest.
Some people used to call this armed robbery. Now it is common practice for cops to just steal anything that they even suspect was used in a crime. No court, no criminal charges, just straight armed robbery.
Wasn’t this site a place to discuss what is happening in the State as well as Seattle? Reading down through the topics I have no idea what is happening behind the scenes in Olympia. It would be nice to find out what is going to happen to us before it happens. Just inquiring…
# 10: We’ll have to get back to you on that….
What’s needed are some eyes and ears on the ground in Olympia. Goldy used to have some helpful contacts and was able to get background and behind-scenes info occasionally. But now he’s gone to The Stranger, they may be getting the benefit of that, instead of us here at HA. I don’t recall offhand how much Lee and other contributors to the site were able to handle this statewide reporting.
The news media is pretty much useless, as they’ve cut out just about all reporting from Olympia which isn’t already being published by the wire services or is the subject of a press release by one side or another.
Anybody with some helpful contacts deep within the party organizations want to help take up the cause?
The most troubling aspect of the smear campaign story is that the security firm called HBGary, apparently was hired by the Washington DC powerhouse legal firm Hunton and Williams on behalf of Bank of America and the Chamber of Commerce—at the recommendation of the Justice Department. If the Justice Dept. is at the bottom of the smear campaign, those damaged by the smear have no place to turn for protection.
# 12:
I remember trying to explain to my wife what the GOP did in Ohio in 2004 to throw the election to George W. Bush. Caging to dis-enfranchise Democratic voters, re-allocation of polling machines to create shortages in Democratic precincts, etc. She seemed rather incredulous. “If couldn’t really happen. After all, if it did, wouldn’t people be prosecuted?”
I tried to point out that the authorities responsible for prosecuting those responsible were the very ones in control of the State of Ohio voting apparatus, their attorney general, and the U.S. Justice Dept. Civil Rights Division. All were under control of the Republicans, and any complaints of GOP misconduct were being “investigated” right into the round file, never to re-appear.
She had a really hard time getting her head around the fact that the government was being used to cover up illegal partison activity, and there were no effective remedies.
Politics isn’t a game anymore. It’s become a deadly serious business, and the Republicans aren’t timid at the prospect of using any means, legal or illegal, to return to power and resume their campaign for a “permanant Republican majority”.
To this end, they have (a) marginalized the mainstream print and broadcast media by insisting on objectivity to the point where they are afraid to take a position on anything; (b) substitute Fox News as the source of all news for much of America; (c) retain and keep control of the judiciary and legal systems to protect them from prosecution and persecute their enemies; and (d) engage in a pattern of lies, misrepresentations, denials, etc. to pretend that white is black, up is down, and right is wrong; and (e) use any means necessary to eliminate or marginalize their opponants by attacking them, their business or financial interests, their profession, their spouses, their children, their parents, etc.
It’s about time the progressives realized that we’ve been at war for quite some time, but only one side has been doing all the shooting.
Remember that before Karl Rove was George Bush’s buddy, he headed the campaign to unseat an Alabama Supreme Court justice. This justice was beyond reproach, having a great family, a noble career in law and on the bench, and even devoted a lot of time and money to a charity he had set up years previously for disadvantaged children.
But that didn’t stop Karl Rove. He started a whispering campaign, which centered on the Young Republican chapter of the Univ. of Alabama Law School. The rumor he circulated was that this justice was a repeat sexual abuser of children, and he used his children’s charity to troll for victims. To make up for the absence of any evidence, they claimed that the justice was too powerful for the police or prosecutors to bring any charges.
This had a powerful effect, one which was difficult to pin down, having it’s source only as word-of-mouth. But the law students had credibility back in their hometowns, as family members, neighbors, and friends assumed that as a law student, this guy/girl would have access to information in the legal community not normally published.
So now everytime the justice sent out mailings showing him walking along with a group of kids from his children’s charity, it had an ominous meaning.
But Rove didn’t stop there. He launched an agressive attack. In a judicial race where the amounts spent on campaigns often didn’t exceed $10,000 total, suddenly hundreds of thousands of dollars were being poured into the campaign. Included were some outragous mis-characterizations of cases where he had voted, and they even got Readers Digest to declare him to be “One of the Nation’s Ten Worst Judges”, citing one of the mis-represented case. (Note: every case has at least two sides to it – if you only hear one side, you are probably outraged until you hear the other side as well).
The voting was very close, with the justice narrowly winning. But then the re-count was contested. It was very much a precursor to the 2000 election contest, with Rove & Co. fighting for every vote, and including both state and federal court intervention. The case wasn’t decided until the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the justice’s favor.
Rove & Co. narrowly lost, but the victory came at a huge price to the the justice. It took a lot out of him, and he knew the whole thing was going to repeat itself in just a few years. He and his wife agreed that he would not run again.
Why spend so much time, money, and effort targeting a state supreme court seat? Because those are the people who ultimately decide a close election. As we saw in Florida in 2000, having a very friendly attorney general and a majority fo the state supreme court justices in your camp, and the willingness to insist that they use their offices for partison advantage, can be the “ace in the whole” which throws a close election.
@2 These are the techniques of tyrants everywhere. But then, we already know the GOP and its fellow travelers aren’t big fans of democracy, don’t we? After all, how does 1% of the population run a country for their own personal benefit if the other 99% get to vote, excepting by hoodwinking half of the 99% into voting for them?
@8 “He never displayed any academic interest, intellectual curiosity or motivation to do anything other than fish and play on his toy ranch.”
And this is manifest in the havoc his administration wreaked on the U.S. and world.
George W. Bush is proof that history is made by rogues.
@14 “having a very friendly attorney general and a majority fo the state supreme court justices in your camp, and the willingness to insist that they use their offices for partison advantage, can be the “ace in the whole” which throws a close election.”
What we have to do is make sure there aren’t any close elections.
Better have an extra large bong hit Lee….
http://www.bellinghamherald.co.....gizes.html
And why would you think this years so-called “Sensible Washington” I-1135 initiative campaign would be any more successful than the last?
Stoners are hard to motivate to get off the couch and actually function after all, even for the weed cause. I’ll be LMFAO once again when it fails. Grow up already! Most of us experimented with it in our younger years, then became responsible & mature adults. Good luck in that pursuit!
(cough, hack, whoa! dude!)
Good day all.
Mark 1 @ # 19: Ask Tim Eyman how many initiatives he would get on the ballot if he relied upon volunteer signature gatherers. The answer is “none”, as he indicated previously when there were attempts to prohibit paid signature gatherers for initiatives.
If you don’t have someone with an awful lot of money willing to finance the initiative, it will usually fail to qualify for the ballot, much less win an election where the result would take a lot of money out of the pockets of some very powerful people. Initiatives which cost a few people a lot of money, but save a moderate amount of money for most, are the most difficult to win.