From: abcnews.com
WASHINGTON, June 20 — The usually accessible Gov.
Smirk
dropped plans for a press conference today, apparently
because of
one big issue that will not go away:
the death penalty.
(Ediotr's Note: This is not the start of the big meltdown.
Not yet.
They're just testing the equipment.)
Quotes that Can't Be
"I understand small business growth. I was one."
-- Gov Bush
How explosive will the
GOP convention be?
Thompson promises "fresh" platform like
no other before it.
Gee, Tom, the others before it were all "pro-life."
And you say this year's platform will be like none before it?
Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson is their platform chairman this
year.
Why would anybody want that job?
And why this year?
Will the abortion plank of their platform reflect it's chairman's
views?
No
Thompson would like to change the platform's strict "never" policy
to a
more-politically-convenient, sometimes/maybe waffle-job like
Smirk.uses.
Yeah, Smirk's a leap-year pro-lifer... you know the type.
He's pro-life Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and weekends,
but he's pro-choice on Tuesdays and Fridays. (rape
and incest)
Will the abortion plank of the platform reflect the views of the
nominee?
For the second convention in a row,
No.
No matter what the polls say,
no matter what the chairman says,
no matter what the nominee says,
no matter what the rank-and-file say,
that platform isn't going to change.
Looks like Thompson and Bush aren't in charge of this convention.
But if Thompson and Bush aren't in charge - who is?
Who are the secret bosses of this convention?
Do the contributors have a right to know who the secret
owners are?
Is it the NRA?
Is Big Tobacco running this party, and this convention?
Are the oil companies producing this Republican nomination?
I'm not sure, but we know Thompson and Bush aren't in charge.
I wonder who is?
And how explosive will this convention become if the rightful
owners
stand up and try to take the party back from the secret
owners?
...and when will they tell Smirk who is running mate is going to be?
I Love Corn
Only days away from the harvest of the ultra-luxury corn crop.
There's nothing like just-picked corn on the cob.
Buy stock in Land O' Lakes and Morton.
Mmmmmmmmm, boy!
Ten days is a long time.
Till then, I can only watch
it grow.
Great Civil Rights Quotes
June 20 Letter
to USA Today
Gays unfairly target Dr Laura?
No group of people should quietly sit by while they are targeted
as
'biological errors,' unworthy of the same rights as every American.
-- Joan Garry, Executive director GLAAD, New York
Who's the Bad Landlord?
The lack of septic systems in the colonias
is far more than an inconvenience, it is a
serious and deadly health threat. People
are catching hepatitis at third world rates.
Babies are succumbing to diseases like
dysentery
and diarrhea as if this was
an undeveloped nation in Africa and
not the United States.
The number of colonias residents has nearly
doubled during Smirk's
governorship. He hasn't said much
about the problem either, other
than this quote from the Austin American
Statesman last year;
"I would say the progress is good -- not
great, not excellent, but good -- certainly not poor".
Certainly not poor?
Some Outrage
Paul Begala Shoots the Bull
When racists in the earlier part of this century lynched black
men they
were not only murdering, they were also attacking an entire community.
And so we all recoil at the horror of James Byrd Jr. dragged
through
the streets of the Black part of Jasper, Texas until he was dead.
There were hundreds of murders in Texas in 1998, but that one
stands out.
Why?
Because the racists who did it were trying to send a message of
hate
to the entire community. And thus the community of civilized
people has
a responsibility to send a message as well: if your motive
for killing,
beating, lynching or attacking is hatred directed at an entire
community,
we are going to ensure your swift and certain punishment.
It's a shame that Gov. Bush refused to go to Jasper, Texas to
comfort
the Byrd family and heal the community. The man who never misses
a
fundraiser at the country club abandoned his fellow Texans when
they
needed him most. And he abandoned them again when the James Byrd,
Jr.
Hate Crimes Act was before the Texas Legislature. Both
times,
when character and courage called him to stand against hate --
Bush hid.
Bush is a good man. He has a good heart -- especially on issues
of race. And
yet when political calculus -- and political cowardice -- dictated
that he do
nothing when he was asked to stand against evil, he did nothing.
When did Homer Simpson buy Newsmax.com?
Black Leaders Blame Clinton and 'Gangsta Rap' for Sex Attacks
Two spokesmen for an African-American group calling itself the
Fox News Homies cited President Clinton's conduct with Monica
Lewinsky, along with "gangsta rap" music, as the root cause for
last week's Central Park sex attacks, the AP reported Monday.
50 women were soaked with water, stripped and groped in the melee
that followed the Puerto Rican Day parade a week ago Sunday.
"Look at the president, look what he did, and what kind of signal that
sends
to young men of this nation," said Charles Barron, president
and CEO of
Blacks who Loooove Dancing for Whitey.
"Something's wrong with a society where a president can do that
and then get a 70 or 80 percent approval rating in spite of it,"
added Barron.
Thoughts on Killing People
by JON CARROLL San Francisco
Chronicle
IT IS NO longer possible to have exquisite abstract discussions about the death penalty. It is no longer possible to debate the problem of evil far into the night, or the nature of vengeance, or to use the phrase ``false compassion'' in a sentence.
Those dorm-room bull sessions belong to an alternative universe. They
are like discussions about whether the king of
England should submit to the will of the pope, or whether elephants
can be useful in battle. Perhaps those discussions
were relevant once, but that time has passed.
The question is not: Should the state be allowed to put to death people
guilty of crimes it finds particularly heinous?
That's an interesting question, but it's fantasy. The question now
is: Should the state be allowed to kill innocent people
because it's afraid to admit error?
So all those who think the random taking of life by the established
government is a good idea, move over there.
Except it's not quite random, is it, because it is heavily skewed against
poor people and even more heavily skewed
against black people.
Should one of the penalties for dark skin be death? That's the real
question. Everyone who believes that's OK, move
over there. Now we can have a discussion. The real-life debate topic
for today, Resolved: The state should continue
to kill innocent black people.
I have to say, I'm taking the ``con'' side of that question. Fortunately,
we have a bipartisan team on the ``pro'' side:
Republican Gov. George W. Bush and Democratic Gov. Gray Davis. They're
the Moral Opacity Brothers. Let's
give them a big hand.
YOU'VE SEEN THE latest study: Two out of three death-penalty convictions
were overturned on appeal, primarily
because of serious errors by incompetent defense attorneys or overzealous
police officers.
It was an exhaustive sample, all death-penalty cases from 1973 to 1995.
The numbers are too overwhelming to be
dismissed as statistical flukes: Two-thirds were filled with mistakes.
The state was ready to fry someone who, it
turned out, had not been given a fair trial. And this was before the
advances in DNA evidence, which can far more
effectively proclaim innocence or affirm guilt.
It's a broken system, folks. It's a system in which a ``tough on crime''
swagger is more important than actual justice.
So given a) the bias of the system, shown in previous studies, against
poor and black defendants, and b) the
laughable kangaroo-court nature of many of the trials, it is fair to
assume that we, as voters in a democracy, have
participated in the killing of blameless people.
(We do that anyway -- we send firefighters and police officers to their
deaths as a sacrifice to safety and security.
Do we really want to do it pointlessly, as mere ritual sacrifice to
social inequity? Maybe it makes us feel safe -- well,
somebody's dead, I can sleep better tonight.)
GEORGE BUSH MAINTAINS that the state of Texas has never, ever put to
death an innocent person. Not even
once. He maintains that because any other stance would be politically
uncomfortable, because once he admitted
error he'd have to entertain the notion that he had presided over the
murders of innocents.
In order to correct that sin, he would have to (like Gov. George Ryan
of Illinois) put a moratorium on executions in
Texas. And that would cause a slowing of the great river of money heading
into his campaign. A rich guy lets poor
people be killed so he can get even richer, so he can get more power,
so he can cut taxes so that rich people are
even less inconvenienced than previously.
Gray Davis is in a similar bind. He loves his river of cash too, more
than any policy or program, and he knows that
the smell of rotting flesh every so often reassures his donors. No
moratoriums for Davis, either. Not useful right now.
Thanks for asking.
From: watsmata4u@monmouth.com
Kodo's to the brave and noble liberal mayor of NYC for filing
suit against gunmakers.
If only he would run for senate.
ha ha
We are all fools for falling for that senate run scam the republicans ran on us.
ha ha
Ain't it the truth?
Will Smirk Execute Another Innocent
Man?
Juror in Graham case says he was wrong
Tthe Houston Whore Chronicle
Even though he was on the jury that convicted Gary Graham in 1981,
Bobby Pryor wasn't always sure about Graham's guilt.
At trial he didn't think Graham's attorney Ron Mock was fighting for
his client
or that witness Bernadine Skillern could have really seen his face
that clearly.
He said he tried to hold out but eventually he sided with other jurors to convict Graham.
Now after hearing so much about the case, he is convinced he made the wrong decision.
"I always had a bad feeling about it. My gut feeling was he wasn't guilty,"
Pryor said
at his Houston-area home Monday. "I just believe he might be innocent."
Pryor said his doubts were buoyed by statements made by Sherian Etuk
and Ronald
Hubbard, former employees of the Safeway store where Bobby Lambert
was killed.
Both said the shooter was considerably shorter than Graham, but they
didn't testify at the trial.
"You got two people who say he was a shorter guy. Ain't no way in the
world I would have
done that (found him guilty knowing that)," Pryor said.
Graham was convicted of capital murder in the death of Lambert.
He is scheduled to be executed Thursday.
Graham's attorney, Jack Zimmermann, confirmed Monday he has found three
jurors who,
after listening to additional statements, say they wouldn't have voted
to find Graham guilty.
Zimmermann said the three were presented with evidence about the manner
in which
Skillern identified Graham. He complains that police used photos of
other suspects who had
bushy hair and that Graham's photo was the only one that matched Skillern's
initial description
of the suspect.
Zimmermann also points to her police statement that says the suspect
she saw had darker
skin and his face was thinner than Graham's picture.
Zimmerman said this helps his call for a new hearing for Graham because
it proves that
if others had heard the testimony the outcome would have been different.
"That's our whole point -- Gary Graham didn't get a fair trial and that
he deserves a hearing,"
Zimmermann said. "It would have made a difference to these three people.
They would have changed their vote."
Last week, Skillern said she remains certain it was Graham she saw kill Lambert.
Pryor said he tried to hold out during jury deliberations but eventually was persuaded to vote guilty.
"It was hard for me to do it but I had to go by what the judge instructed,"
Pryor said.
"I hope they don't do that (execute Graham). He just didn't get his
justice in this trial."
In keeping up with the case, Pryor said he had always hoped that Graham
would find
a way to get a new trial. Over the years, he thought of ways to speak
out about his doubts.
However, he didn't make a public statement until an investigator found
him last week.
"Justice is what this country is all about," Pryor said. "Actually,
I feel like I put him to death.
I don't feel good about the position I'm in now."
The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles is reviewing a petition by Graham's
lawyers
that asks for a full or conditional pardon, a 120-day reprieve to have
a hearing
or a commutation of his death sentence.
Dammit, dammit, dammit!
I've been sitting on this great picture of Smirk for a year.
When his "Smirk Flys into a Cocaine Cloud" story broke over the
weekend,
I thought I'd finally get a chance to use this, but nooooooooooooooo.
It disappeared,
No doubt, sabotage by my political enemies!!!!
What the hell, let's run the story again, because it's important!
Bush Flies into an Air Force Cocaine Cloud
Once again, we must go outside of Texas to get news critical of Bush..
Why is the Texas press giving him a free ride?
George W Bush, was suspended from flying as a young pilot for
failing to takea medical examination that included a drug test.
Documents obtained by The Sunday Times reveal that in August 1972, as
a 26-year-old
flyboy in the Air National Guard, Bush was grounded for failing to
take a medical exam
that would have indicated whether he was taking drugs.
Rumors of cocaine use and "lost weekends in Mexico" have plagued Bush
Jr, 53,
for months since he declared himself a candidate in the presidential
race.
With character an election issue, the latest revelation is certain to
rekindle interest
in Bush's past. Yesterday it provoked accusations by Democrats of a
cover-up.
While he has consistently admitted to a "misspent youth", Bush has
evaded questions
about cocaine or other drug use, implying only that he has not taken
illegal substances
since 1974, the year after he left the Air National Guard.
Allegations about his stint in a reserve unit at the height of the Vietnam
war are likely
to provoke parallels with Bill Clinton, whose early presidential candidacy
was mired in
accusations of draft-dodging and questions of whether he inhaled marijuana
as a student.
Bush was not required to face drug tests when he first entered the reserve
unit
as a Yale graduate in 1968. It was only at the end of 1971 that the
US Air Force
introduced a drug-screening policy. In April 1972 the Pentagon implemented
a
drug-abuse testing program that required at least one random drug test
every year.
The code stated that personnel must undergo the medical in the month
following their
birthday. For Bush, this meant August. In May, the young airman moved
from his
Air Force training base in Houston to Massabama.
To avoid constant travel, he applied to move his training program from
Houston
to Dannelly Air Base in Montgomery, Alabama, but he never arrived.
William Turnipseed, a retired general who commanded the Alabama unit
at the time,
said Bush never appeared for duty. Two commanders at Ellington air
force base in
Houston said in his record they were unable to perform his annual evaluation
covering
the year from May 1, 1972 to April 30, 1973. "Lt Bush has not been
observed at this
unit during the period of this report," they wrote.
Veterans claim Bush has not been shy in extolling the virtues of
his flying career despite not being backed up by his record.
Pigboy's New Format
Well, well, the Rush Limba show seems to have a new format.
So far, he hasn't spent any hours praising Tiger Woods.
Will this new format continue?
Or is this a temporary detour from non-stop, never-ending Tigermania?
What's he talking about today?
The price of gasoline.
Y'know, it's too bad there are no gamblers out there.
I'm in a gambling mood, after listening to the lying Pigboy.
Rush says the increase in gas prices is Al Gore's fault, due
to the
"new, obtrusive, unneeded and expensive clean air requirements"
forced on the poor, poor oil companies by the big, bad government.
Two points:
When the air gets cleaner, Pigboy won't CREDIT Gore, no.
He'll say, "Since the air is cleaning itself, it proves
that Al Gore
was just wasting money with his risky air-cleaning schemes."
Second, Rush says the oil companies are not price-gouging.
Here's where the gamblin' comes in:
If the oil companies are not price-gouging,
if the oil companies are merely passing on the high-costs of
Al Gore's extremism, that means their profits will not
increase.
Any gamblers out there now?
ha ha
The oil company's profits are about to shoot thru the goddamn
roof.
Or, to quote Tiger Woods, "the goddamn, mother-fucking prick"
roof.
Remember the Nixon/Ford inflation years?
That's when the oil companies made so much goddamn money
Exxon pushed General Motors out of the top spot on the Fortune
500.
The oil compoanies said they didn't know how profits skyrocketed
because "were not price-gouging, swear to God."
Yet, somehow, miracle of miracles, when the oil companies were
NOT
gouging the public, they beat out General Motors in size and
profits..
Hey, Pigboy!
If you're telling the truth, let's gamble!
In 60 days or 90 days, when the applicable corporate reports are
filed,
we're going to see "windfall profits" at the oil companies, the
greedy shits.
C'mon, Pigboy, you gutless coward.
Let's bet!
By the way...
Last night I caught some of the recent Gerald Ford Biography
on A&E.
You younger kids don't remember, but Ford's administration was
a hoot!
Amazingly, the bio did NOT include the famous line of Ford's,
"I don't think the country would stand for it," when he was asked
at his
confirmation hearing of he would pardon Dick the Crook.
They also said Dick picked Ford becauee he thought he was "too
stupid"
to be president and that would be his anti-impeachment insurance.
Is that why the GOP is running Smirk now?
Anyway, during Ford's truncated term he had:
The end of the war in Vietnam, the war that Nixon swore he would
end
waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay back in 1968.
(It ended in 1975. Think how many fewer panels would be needed
for
the Vietnam Memorial if Nixon wasn't such a goddamn liar. But
it's OK
if Nixon lied because it had nothing to do with Clinton's Cock!)
Ford also had impossibly wild inflation.
Do you remember Ford's "Whip Inflation
Now"
buttons?
Get it? It spells "WIN."
That's how Republicans handle a crisis.
They have the Franklin Mint print up a few million buttons that
say "WIN"
and pary, and wait for the bad inflation to go back to its cave
in the woods.
Ford also had the worst recession in 30 years.
Only Reagan's depression of 81-83 was bigger.
Ford's unemployment figures were higher than I get on my birthday.
Ford also had interest rates that were what, 15 percent? 18 percent?
I remember when Von Reagan ran against Carter in 1980, he kept
whining
about "Carter's Misery Index," like it was Jimmy's goddamn fault.
Funny, these days, the GOP claims it takes 15-20 years for a
president's
policies to affect the economy, but back then they said it only
took just
one half-term for the president to affect the economy, remember?
...the lying bastards...
Ford also had the Mayaquez Incident.
Have you heard this story?
A bunch of hooligans from Cambodia fired on one of our ships,
The Mayaquez,
and captured our fighting men. What did the idiot Ford advisors
suggest?
Massive and total carpet-bombing of the entire country of Cambodia.
But...
but...
but...
Gerald Ford's personal photographer, a long-haired, hippy type
chimed in
with a suggestion, something that never happened before. I mean,
a lowly
photoboy interrupting the braintrusts behind the never-ending
war?
Photoboy suggested that perhaps the Cambodian government didn't
authorize
this attack, that maybe, just maybe some Ollie North-style, loose-cannon,
crackhead captain of a ship took this action, so Ford reconsidered.
Hey, I'm not making this up
Ford agreed with the long-haired, dope-smoking-looking hippy and
instead
of bombing Cambodia back into the 14th century, Ford authorized
a small
Marine invasion force to go in and get our boys back.
They retrieved the Mayaquez crew, but lost 41 Marines doing it.
That's a damn high price to pay, 41 Marines, but it averted a
war.
But Ford wasn't finished yet.
Noooo, not by a long shot.
Ford had to get thru Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme and Sara Jane Moore.
...by the way, I'll bet you thought you'd go thru your entire
life on Earth
and not see a naked picture of Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme
Fear not!
bartcop.com the web site that brought you naked pictures
of
Paula Jones,
Laura the Unloved,
Patti Reagan,
Pat Boone,
Diane Sawyer,
Barbara Walters,
Divine Brown,
Gennifer Flowers,
The Judd Family,
that "Kennedy" DJ,
the inevitable Dick Stone,
Paula Parkinson,
Fanne Foxe,
Susie Molinari,
and Marcia Clark,
now brings you Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme!
Click here to see Ford's attempted assassin naked.
Special Bonus - maybe the newer readers haven't seen this yet.
Click Here to see the only online picture of Clinton's prick!
ha ha
He deserves every bit of that!
Whoops, I spoke too soon.
Pigboy is back on his Tiger Woods, all day, all the time format.
When will he stop???
Vatican To Unveil Secret
of Fatima
By The Associated Press
VATICAN CITY (AP) -- The Vatican said Monday
it will unveil the details
of the so-called third secret of Fatima
next week.
The gist of the secret was revealed last
month during Pope John Paul II's
pilgrimage to the shrine of Fatima in Portugal.
But the Vatican has not yet
issued an official document.
A commission led by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger
is to release a text and
commentary about the secret on June 26,
the Vatican said.
(Ediotr's Request: Please release the Virgin Mary's exact
words, and not
"your interpretation," of what she really meant, OK fellas?
I believe the quote
attributed to her was "a spray of gunfire," and I didn't think
that term was
popular in 1917, Your Holiness.)
Vatican officials have said the secret,
based on visions reported by three
shepherd children in Fatima in 1917, foretold
a 1981 attempt on the pope's life.
The third secret of Fatima was one of the
most enduring mysteries of modern
Roman Catholicism; many had believed it
was a doomsday prophecy too terrible
to reveal.
(Ediotr's Note: I'd like to thank the Catholic Church for
not using this
"doomsday prophesy" as a fund-raising tool to scare the young
children who
were only six fucking years old at the time. Yes, there
was a time when I
was unable to defend myself from the scary stories told by the
Catholic Church.)
John Paul read the secret just days after
becoming pope in 1978,
but kept it to himself until the end of
the millennium.
(Objection! The Pope kept this "prophesy" a secret until
something happened
that they could link to it. When a magician asks you to
"pick a card,"
he doesn't wait until after he sees your card to tell
you what it was.)
The pontiff credits the Virgin of Fatima
with saving him from death after he
was gravely wounded by a Turkish gunman
in St. Peter's Square on May 13, 1981.
The other two secrets were revealed decades
ago. They are said to have
foretold the end of World War I and the
beginning of World War II, and the
rise and fall of Soviet Communism.
(Will we be getting the exact wording of those "predictions,"
too?
This "miracle" is almost as outlandish as the script for Mission
Impossible II)
Cunningham gets out the long knives...
...and when Smirk talks to anybody, he sounds like a mental dwarf!
Great Centrist Quotes
"It ain't no secret, my friend, that you can be killed
for just living in your American skin."
-- Bruce Springsteen, "American Skin" from his new album
Great Pig Quotes
"Springsteen's turned into some type of fucking dirtbag.
Now he's a floating fag."
-- Robert Lucente, PRESIDENT of the NY Fraternal Order
of Police,
who still has a fucking
job.
Do we want George Bush to do to America what he's done to Texas?
Ricardo Guzman, left, gives his little brother Christian a push in a
toy car,
as they play with neighbor Jonathan Reyes, right, outside the mobile
home
where they are being raised by their single mother in the Sunny Skies
colonia
near Brownsville, Texas.
Their trailer has no running water or sewage.
The boys are among an estimated 400,000 residents of Texas colonias,
repeat
scattered in the scrubby fields and deserts along the Mexico border.
As Gov.Bush runs for the presidency, critics are calling attention
to the
1,500 colonias in his home state,
repeat
and critics wonder why he hasn't lifted a goddamn finger to help them.
Texas - It's like a whole other country!
Archbishop Edward Egan, is seen here blessing a chalice of wine, excuse
me,
the blood of Christ, during his "installation" Mass at St. Patrick's
Cathedral.
Egan, who was called up from the Bridgeport, Conn. franchise, succeeds
the late
Cardinal John O'Connor as the spiritual leader of New York's 2.4 million
Catholics.
The New York managerial post is considered the plum American Catholic
job.
In case you didn't know, the Catholics run their franchises the same
way
a major league baseball team runs its organization and farm clubs.
If you need a center-fielder, you call one up.
If you need a left-handed pitcher, you call one up.
If you have two boring priests in your local parish, and fund-raising
is down,
you call up a fire-and-brimstone fundamentalist to loosen the parish
pursestrings.
By the way, do you know Egan invited to his "installation" Mass?
The following baby-killers:
Rudy Giuliani, Rick Lazio, Gov. Wacky Pataki, Hillary, Chuck Schumer and others.
Funny - that Archbishop would invite these baby-killers into
his church to
help him celebrate the biggest day of his Christian life, yet that
donkey
in Scranton thought it would be best to DIS-invite the next President
of
the United States because he wanted to impress people like Rush Limbaugh.
Bless me Father, for I need to hurl!!
How disgusting it is when so-called religious people act rude and churlish
just
to call attention to their pretend holier-than-thou beliefs. But, as
previous testimony
indicates, Archbishop Egan outranks the Scranton bad-manners
boy.
Bad-manners boy thinks he's holier than Archbishop Egan?
Aren't envy and self-importance sins?
If Hillary and Schumer and baby-killing Rudy are good enough
to be invited to a
religious service by the ranking Catholic on this entire continent,
why was our next
President insulted in such a base and petty way by that high-horse
Scranton hypocrite?
Politics - that's the answer.
David Chase Loses Second Mother
- 
David Chase, the real-life boss of The Sopranos crime family,
has lost his second mother, Nancy Marchand, to lung cancer.
In interviews, Chase said the character Livia Soprano was based
on his
real-life mother. Chase said growing up was particularly
difficult when his
mother would fly into full Livia mode. He knew when he cast the
Queen of
All Bitches that she would act and talk like his late mother.
He said Thanksgiving and Christmas were particularly painfull
because if anyone
in the extended family said anything she didn't like,
his mother would grab her chest
and say, "Oh, just take me, Lord!"
One of the funniest lines on TV's finest show was the simple,
"Oh, poor you!"
Chase said he had to hear that hundreds of times growing
up.
By all accounts, Marchand was fantastic to work with.
Chase said the part of Livia Soprano will not be played by another
actress.
Shooting on The Sopranos begins again in August, and he
and the other writers
will find a way to work her death into the storyline.
Ms. Marchand will be missed.
Required Reading - Test Tomorrow
The New Gatekeepers
By my good friend Joe Conason
Facing scrutiny for their own peccadilloes,
Internet loose lips Matt Drudge and Lucianne
Goldberg
undergo a Kafkaesque transformation.
June 20, 2000 | Hypocrisy and cant infect the
political spectrum from end to end,
especially when the subject is sexual morality.
But rarely has there been a display
of indignation as phony and self-serving as the
recent campaign by Matt Drudge,
Lucianne Goldberg and their cronies to suppress
"The Insane Clown Posse,"
a book by New York writer John Connolly that
threatened to expose
titillating secrets of various figures on the
Clinton-hating right.
Until Talk Miramax Books canceled Connolly's contract
just over a week ago,
there was a deep sense of foreboding reflected
in Drudge's dispatches about the
unfinished manuscript he had somehow obtained.
How desperate were Drudge
and company to stop Connolly from publishing
his still-unfinished work?
Evidently desperate enough to willingly embarrass
Kenneth Starr, Supreme Court
Justice Anthony Kennedy and author Christopher
Buckley by posting canards
about them that allegedly appear in the manuscript.
Not having examined that purloined document, I
have no way of judging whether
it should be published. Nor can I say whether
the information Connolly was
pursuing deserves to be publicized, or represents
instead an unwarranted inquisition
into matters that ought to remain private. But
what remains striking about this
episode is how quickly the freewheeling 'wingers
mutated into defenders of
absolute privacy when their own peccadilloes
faced exposure.
What did stand exposed were the flexible ethics
of a few conservative activists and
commentators. Even Drudge's own rather nihilistic
notion of press freedom gave way
to his urge to protect his cronies. Not since
Larry Flynt offered a $1 million reward for
proof of adultery by Republican lawmakers have
we seen such deep yearning on the
right for a return to old-fashioned civility
and journalistic responsibility.
(That mood quickly passed, of course, and we
were back to dirty business as usual.)
Coincidentally, just a few days before Drudge
posted his first item about the Connolly
book, I listened to Lucianne Goldberg express
her own very casual attitude toward
truth and consequences. We were discussing the
question of privacy and journalistic
standards in the Internet era on a panel at the
annual convention of the Association
of Alternative Newspapers, where I insisted that
Net media ought to be held to the
strict reporting and libel standards of print
and broadcast journalism.
Goldberg demurred at any such strictures, cheerfully
admitting that she had quite
recently published an unchecked, damaging and,
as it turned out, wholly false rumor
on her Web site about someone she dislikes. She
wanted it to be true, so she posted it.
After all, she explained, her false item had
been based on a "true rumor," meaning
that someone had said it somewhere at some time.
In short, she had perpetrated
a gross smear, which later showed up in the pages
of the New York Post.
Such are the moral habits acquired by the hard-bitten
literary agent over the years,
ever since her brief employment in 1972 as a
snitch for the Nixon White House,
spying on reporters, Secret Service agents and
others aboard George McGovern's
campaign plane and turning in daily reports about
alleged sexual affairs and drug use.
If she honors any limits whatsoever in political
warfare, it isn't obvious what those limits might be.
Flash forward to the blitz against Connolly, who
apparently was tracking down dozens
of "true rumors" (and perhaps even some true
facts) about Goldberg, Drudge, Ann Coulter
and others of the same anti-Clinton ilk. Although
he hadn't published anything yet,
they were all outraged that he dared to research
or even discuss their private behavior
-- rumored, alleged or possibly true.
Somehow the subjects of Connolly's scrutiny regarded
his project as different from
their own assaults on the president, his family
and friends during the past eight years.
That was patriotic duty while this was "slash
and trash," a "sex witch hunt" and
"defamatory slander" reeking of "scorched earth."
They were especially enraged
about Connolly's employment of a private detective
to assist him in his research.
Scorched-earth tactics and sexual witch hunts
are always deplorable, of course.
Yet this time it wasn't easy to sympathize with
the scandal-singed complainants,
if only because they've all been spreading inflammatory
material and playing
with matches themselves for so many years.
Consider the unappetizing example of David Bossie,
the right-wing researcher who
worked on both the Senate Whitewater Committee
and the Dan Burton-led
Government Reform and Oversight Committee in
the House. According to Drudge,
Bossie was distressed because Connolly had supposedly
promoted rumors that he is gay.
This is the same Bossie whose debut in national
politics involved promoting a patently
fake story that Bill Clinton had impregnated
an Arkansas student who then committed
suicide -- with the added insinuation that she
might not have killed herself.
That smear dated back to 1992, when Clinton was
first running for president and
Bossie was working for Citizens United, a conservative
outfit that wanted to defeat
the Democratic nominee by any means necessary.
Not only did Citizens United try to
promote this particular lie, but Bossie and a
private detective actually harassed the
dead woman's bereaved family so mercilessly that
their misconduct was exposed
by CBS News, which quoted the Bush campaign excoriating
the scuzzy maneuvers
of Citizens United.
Equally angry about Connolly's quest was another
of his apparent targets,
Wall Street Journal editorial writer John Fund.
What Fund seems to have forgotten
was his own enthusiasm for precisely the same
kind of investigation against Clinton
during the summer of 1992, when he and Bossie
met in Citizens United's Virginia
offices with a Little Rock, Ark., private detective
offering to sell them dirt about the
Democratic presidential nominee. Although he
has denied it, some still suspect
Fund of having encouraged the false rumor about
Clinton aide Sidney Blumenthal
abusing his wife, which Drudge published in August
1997.
Another of the furious Connolly subjects quoted
by Drudge was an attorney
peripherally involved in bringing the Lewinsky
case to he attention of the independent
counsel. Evidently his private life, too, had
become a subject of interest to author Connolly,
and he screamed that for such a probe to be funded
by Miramax was "unconscionable."
But this same lawyer's conscience didn't trouble
him back in 1992 when he joined a group
of GOP operatives promoting the bogus story about
a "love child" fathered by Clinton with
a black prostitute in Little Rock, or when he
used promises of money to encourage Clinton's
former bodyguards to tell outlandish stories
about Hillary Clinton and late White House counsel
Vince Foster. That was just politics as usual
for the kind of Republican whose notions of fair
and appropriate campaigning may be traced back
to the late party leader Lee Atwater and
that dirtiest of tricksters, Richard Milhous
Nixon.
The heirs of Atwater and Nixon like to dish it
out but they can't take it. Suddenly, when
they found themselves in the spotlight, the most
habitual practitioners of the politics of
personal destruction were fretting about sleazy
tactics and ruined lives. Their pious
concern with journalistic standards was directly
proportional to their own vulnerability.
Still, the hypocritical outcry against the Connolly
book might have had a positive
aspect, if it signaled a new attitude of responsibility
among the "insane clown posse"
themselves. Harsh personal experience sometimes
awakens a decent impulse.
Certainly American politics would be healthier
if everyone realized that the time
has come to close the Pandora's box of character
assassination.
Don't get your hopes up, though.
This may be a new millennium, but it's also an
election year.
Ediotr's Note: Rarely do I disagree with Smoking Joe Conason,but
we need
at least one more ride on the Un-fair-us Wheel before we get back to
civility
We'll know that time has come when Barbara Bush goes on CNN live to
cry
hard tears about the terrible, terrible things that were done to her
precious Smirk.
...then we can get back to playing nice, not before.
Military Justice
From: stubby_rodriguez@yahoo.com
Subject: drugs and the military
In the 6/19 issue you wrote:
>If you're in, ...Oh, ...I don't know, ...say the National Guard,
> and you find yourself under arrest for,
> ...Oh, ...I don't know, ...let's say "possession of coke with
intent."
> Do they put you in jail or do the cops call your C.O. or what?
> And what speshul arrangements can be made if your daddy is
> a rich and powerful congressman and knows the judge personally.
> Anyone know?
My experience dates back to 1979. One of
the men under my command
was charged with possesion of stolen perscription
drugs. I was sent to his
sentencing and asked to request he be sent
back to the ship where he
could serve whatever sentence he was given
in the brig. The judge looked
at me, shook his head, and grieved out
loud about the state of our military.
Needless to say, he didn't return with me,
spent the next 6 months in jail,
and was dishonorably discharged for being
AWOL (the militry doesn't
accept jail as a valid excuse for not being
on duty).
I visited his family before and after the
sentencing, in a trailer on the edge
of town. His sister went with me to the
courthouse because his parents
couldn't face it. I was the only one who
stood up and spoke on his behalf.
So, I know how it works for those who are
not rich and powerful.
They get jail time, a dishonorable discharge,
and a weak appeal
for mercy from a 2nd class petty
officer.
Stubby
Tigger, Too
From: DaryelBush@aol.com
Subject: Tiger Woods
Bartcop, you're doing Tiger wrong.
First, he went right after Fuzzy Zoeller
for that terrible "fried chicken" joke...
Second, it's Tiger's choice to not be openly
political. Do you remember Jordan
saying, "Republicans buy shoes too?" Woods
is putting the Charles Murray racists
down by proving that he has a better mental
game than anybody out there.
Finally, Woods does not consider himself
a solely African-American spokesperson.
His mother is Asian American. There is
an As-Am "angle" to Tiger's dissing of the
Payne Stewart memorial. Woods said he was
working on his putt, but I remember
reading in Giant Robot that Stewart
did a tacky "Chinaman" impression about
a week before he bit the dust that ticked
off a lot of Asian Americans.
It got covered up in Stewart eulogy as a
"Born Again Christian."
(In fact, Stewart was a jerk and a couple
of sportswriters admitted it after he died.)
Lay off Tiger!!!
AND...
From: kgoodman@primemanufacturing.com
hey bc,
Just a reminder that Tiger has done his
share, at least in exposing
racism in his chosen sport.
OK, so he was an asshole to diss the President
for wanting a photo-op.
After all, who's more important, the Prez,
or Mr. Sports Superstar?
Is that your only real beef here?
Ken, so, Tiger made a statement in 1996.
Has he fulfilled his obligation?
I think not.
If I was Tiger, I'd get a list of those courses I was barred from
and
send out a press release that I was going there next week to
play
and let the press and their live cameras follow me to the gate.
He also fucked that Carolina deal.
The NAACP called for a boycott of Carolina over the slaver flag
issue.
Tiger was skipping a tourney there and they asked him if it was
due to
the boycott and he said, "No, I'm just taking some time
to rest,"
sending whitey and corporate America a signal that he wasn't
a "troublemaker."
How easy it would've been to say, "Yes, I was going to play, but
if Carolina
wants to be a bunch of racist assholes, then I won't play in
that state."
That would've made worldwide headlines, and tht flag would've
come down
a lot sooner.
Something to keep in mind:
All this is thrust upon him, because he's black and the best
golfer in the world.
Michael Jordan never had this opportunity because the race barrier
had already been broken when he arrived.
Where is Tiger's committment?
Does he consider himself non-black?
Even if he does, would the country club who barred him agree?
Noooooooo.
He can claim he's Asian or a mix or whatever he wants, but when
that
door gets slammed in his face it's because he's black and nothing
else.
Last thing - he's got hundreds of millions.
He's risking nothing in this fight.
If whitey gets upset that he's a "troublemaker," he still has
more money than
he could ever possibly spend and if they somehow barred him from
playing,
he could always take his millions and retire saying,
"They barred me because I was too good for them - and I'm black."
But no, he's Rush's little darling instead.
Remember my oft-repeated observation that when somebody screws
up,
Rush and Laura and Fox News check behind the offender's name
to see
if there's an "R," or a, "D" there, so they'll know if they're
guilty or not?
It happens again and again, day after day, and here's another example.
For two weeks, Rush screamed insults at Robin Williams for using
his usual
stand-up language at that Clinton fundraiser, language he's been
using for 20 years.
I remember a story from the late 70's about the parents who brought
their kids to
see "Mork from Ork" in concert and Williams used the language
most Americans
use and the parents were properly and understandably upset.
Those parents thought their kids were going to see Mork.
But 22 years later?
Pigboy acts all surprised when Robin Williams speaks like Robin
Williamns?
That was the crime of the century, to hear Pigboy tell
the tale.
Also...
At one point, Robin had just used an adult word when he noticed
a child
in the front row and said, "Oh, the little one learned some new
words today."
The vulgar Pigboy said Williams said that because he was "proud
to be
warping that kid's mind with filthy language," or some such bullshit.
But anybody who saw it on TV knows Williams suddenly realized
it wasn't
an adults-only room he was playing. That's why he said
what he said.
Would you expect kids at a $50,000-a-seat fund-raiser?
Second, nobody saw the child, but later I heard someone say it
was a baby,
and would have no comprehension at "evil" Robin's attempt to
destroy her.
Now - to the point.
(Massive applause)
The Golden Boy, Rush's new best friend, the man who overcame racism
with nothing more than hard work and God's talent - Tiger "Slappy"
Woods,
was overheard doing his Robin Williams impression live on TV.
"What kind of TV?" you ask.
Was it an expensive, by-invitation-only, private affair Woods
cursed at?
Was it on late at night, when the kiddies were all asleep in
bed?
Was it in between a bunch of boring-as-hell speeches by Democrats?
Was it on some obscure cable channel that most Americans don't
watch
and many more wouldn't watch if guns were held to their heads?
No, ...not exactly.
No, when Tigger wants to blister your kid's ears, he does it on
NBC,
on a Saturday morning during the kid's regular cartoon
hour, when he
knows every little kid who looks up to him will be sitting with
Dad and
Grandma watching him play golf with the pitiful white boys.
How did it sound?
Click Here to listen to the Golden Boy misbehave for the children.
(Forgive the echo sound - If anyone knows how to
shut that off on
Cool Edit 2000, send me some e-mail.)
So, to wrap things up, (waves of applause)
it's a mortal sin if
Robin Williams does his 22-year act for the adults on C-Span,
but if Mr. There's-no-more-racism-in-America wants to scream
"goddamn mother-fucking prick" at the ball he just hit
out of bounds,
in NBC's Saturday morning cartoon-o-rama time slot, then
he's just
exercising his right to free speech and the liberals should just
grow up.
Anyone who bitches about Robin and not Tiger Woods is a
whore.
That means bought-and-paid-for shills like Rush, Hannity and
Laura need to
apologize to Robin Williams or condemn Slappy the Tigger in the
strongest terms.
That won't happen.
You just heard PROOF that Robin and Tigger both curse like drunk
sailors,
but the GOP "values and virtues squad" only hears the liberal
curse words.
You know why they pretend to only hear one guy cursing?
...because Rush, Hannity and Laura are paid-for whores.
60 Minutes
Maybe you heard, 60 Minutes caught some flack, not much, but some,
for running the ultra-sensational story that Iran was the country
behind the
bombing of Pan Am #103, and that Clinton was the idiot that was
blaming
the innocent folks in Libya.
This caused quite a stir because the bastards who DID the crime
are
semi-sorta on trial right now in Europe, and here's Leslie Stahl
and the
money-grubbing whores at 60 Minutes saying we had the wrong guys.
But did they?
60 Minutes said, "If it can be proved...." and then they laid
out the entire
scenario which all but buried their lil' qualifier.
They have yet to apologize.
How guilty are they?
Now that the story has been dis-proven, they're guilty as Limba.
Click Here to see who laid the foundation for this kind of ambush.
Yes, that's just what 60 Minutes did.
They pulled a lying-whore Limba on America,
which is what all the press whores have become since Jan 20,
1993.
Good Question
From: JanetofAvalon@hotmail.com
Subject: Party like it's 1972!!!
Maybe I'm suspicious but I'm beginning to
see a pattern here.
Bush "has not been observed" in his Guard
unit from May 1972 to April 1973.
The book Fortunate Son reports that Bush
was arrested in 1972 for cocaine possession.
Bush "volunteers" in 1972 to help inner
city kids for one year.
Bush has his Texas driving record sealed
when he becomes governor.
It's going to take a brighter mind than mine to piece this altogether.
Sincerely,
Janet
Janet, I'm not sure how that works.
I never had the honor of serving in our armed forces, due to
that
hueueueueueuege cyst on my ass, so let me ask the readers:
If you're in,
...Oh, ...I don't know, ...say the National Guard,
and you find yourself under arrest for,
...Oh, ...I don't know, ...let's say "possession of coke with
intent."
Do they put you in jail or do the cops call your C.O. or what?
And what speshul arrangements can be made if your daddy
is
a rich and powerful congressman and knows the judge personally.
Anyone know?
It's a good question.
And we know the Texas media won't touch it
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