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I think Gannon is lying about his ever having seen copies of the CIA docs.

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BurtWorm Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Feb-15-05 10:48 AM
Original message
I think Gannon is lying about his ever having seen copies of the CIA docs.
I think he wants his freeper buddies to think he's a big fish, someone in the great conservative chain of incestuous info sharing, like a Novack or an Andrea Mitchell. But when you get right down to it, he's probably just a lying little nothing who gets his news from listening to Rush Limbaugh, visiting free republic and newsmax, and insinuating his way into news conferences, parties and other political events.
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ClintonTyree Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Feb-15-05 10:53 AM
Response to Original message
1. You could be correct................
he seems like a little weasel to me, but all Republicans seem like weasels to me so it's hard to tell.
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madhat Donating Member (308 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Feb-15-05 10:53 AM
Response to Original message
2. I saw news elsewhere that reporters will now have to testify
Anyone else see this?
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BurtWorm Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Feb-15-05 10:55 AM
Response to Reply #2
4. Judith Miller specifically has been ordered to testify
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Spazito Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Feb-15-05 10:54 AM
Response to Original message
3. How did he pass the security check under his real and assumed
name? I disagree that he has no special 'in' at the White House. If bloggers could find out about this guy, his real name, his past "enterprises" in just a few days, how did he pass the security check and be able to get daily passes for 2 years?

How did he get to be one of the FEW people allowed to ask the President a question at that now 'infamous' press conference?

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BurtWorm Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Feb-15-05 10:56 AM
Response to Reply #3
6. I doubt the White House security check looks into reporters' sexual kinks
I don't think that's any of their business anyway, do you?
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Walt Starr Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Feb-15-05 10:56 AM
Response to Reply #6
8. Actually, where prostitution is involved it's definitely a security risk
He;s a Manwhore and as such is a huge security risk.
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BurtWorm Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Feb-15-05 10:59 AM
Response to Reply #8
10. Do you think they check everyone's sexual kinks?
Or just those of the day passers?
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Warpy Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Feb-15-05 11:07 AM
Response to Reply #10
13. The FBI does a complete background check
on everybody who is allowed past the public areas, and there are damned few public areas in the paranoid junta's White House.

He got his pass only 5 days after Talon was set up (one susupects specifically to credential him), not long enough to do a thorough check, alhough the next two years afforded them ample time.

One wonders who was running interference and why.
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BurtWorm Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Feb-15-05 11:11 AM
Response to Reply #13
15. Do you have some authoritative source for the claim that the FBI
runs a thorough check--i.e., looking for more than criminal charges--in everyone allowed into the press conferences? From what I understand, all you have to give them is your real name, a social security number, and a place of employment.
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Warpy Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Feb-15-05 11:22 AM
Response to Reply #15
19. That's all you do
Then they run it through NCIC and credit agencies. Those outstanding debts to the IRS would have popped up, as would a few late payments to his gay websites. Then they'd have looked a little deeper.

You should have seen what they ran on me in the mid 60s, before Nixon, and I was just an underpaid clerk in a Federal Reserve who had absolutely nothing to do with handling any real money.

Trust me, they'd know who and what he is. Somebody had to get this joker though the gates.
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BurtWorm Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Feb-15-05 11:35 AM
Response to Reply #19
21. Yes, but you were trying to become an employee of the government
That's a different matter. This guy just wanted a seat at a press conference.
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ultraist Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Feb-15-05 04:39 PM
Response to Reply #15
65. Not so. They would not be that careless. That would be foolish
Edited on Tue Feb-15-05 04:41 PM by ultraist
Even as a volunteer driver for KE STAFF, I had to have a Secret Service check. They checked not only my DL but if I had ever been treated for mental illness, institutionalized, criminal background, civil records, etc.

They can find more records on a person in about 30 seconds than the person realizes even exists. They have massive databases and search software. They can pull up what websites you frequent, what groups you are a member of, etc.

There is NO WAY they didn't do a full check and allow him that close to the President, every day for two years.

Someone either disregarded the background check by overriding it, or bypassed it. If someone bypassed it, it's someone with a LOT of clout. It's not easy to bypass WH security procedure.
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BurtWorm Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Feb-15-05 05:05 PM
Response to Reply #65
75. Did they look into whether you'd ever posed in your underwear
on the Internet? :eyes:
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Walt Starr Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Feb-15-05 11:13 AM
Response to Reply #10
18. Prostitution is not a "sexual kink". It is a crime
and yes, they thoroughly check everybody who gets past the public areas. There is an FBI file on Guckert and most likely, it has the information about him being a manwhore.
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BurtWorm Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Feb-15-05 11:43 AM
Response to Reply #18
25. He's an escort. There's a difference.
So I've heard. ;)
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Walt Starr Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Feb-15-05 11:54 AM
Response to Reply #25
28. Charging $200 per hour to be on "top"
is prostitution regardless of how you try to cover it up with semantics.
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BurtWorm Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Feb-15-05 12:00 PM
Response to Reply #28
30. He had to make money somehow, considering Talon wasn't paying him.
I can't get too worked up about it, as long as he wasn't spreading a social disease.
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Walt Starr Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Feb-15-05 12:02 PM
Response to Reply #30
31. It's still a crime
and he was 100% open and public about his crime. The FBI would have a record of it.
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Spazito Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Feb-15-05 11:10 AM
Response to Reply #6
14. Running an illegal 'enterprise' certainly is a security issue
and the fact that he was able to use his assumed name is very questionable. I don't understand, to be honest, why you seem to be so intent on defending this guy from further investigation. What is the harm in digging. There certainly are questions outstanding out there and if further investigation turns up nothing, no harm done. On the other hand, if there is an 'iceberg' there, it is important to try and find it, imo.
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BurtWorm Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Feb-15-05 11:38 AM
Response to Reply #14
22. What's illegal about it?
It's just an escort agency. Have you looked in the back of an alternative newspaper? They're all over the place. They're not supposed to promote prostitution, but they get around that, telling their escorts that it's up to them how they want to earn their tips. Don't they have these businesses in Canada?
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Spazito Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Feb-15-05 11:57 AM
Response to Reply #22
29. As I don't have a need to frequent 'escort' services, I can only...
answer, I don't know.

Again, why not continue to investigate? If there is no 'there' there, no harm done but if there is more, that needs to come out.
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BurtWorm Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Feb-15-05 12:07 PM
Response to Reply #29
34. What do you really think you're going to find probing deeper into this
freeper's private life?
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Spazito Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Feb-15-05 12:13 PM
Response to Reply #34
35. Advertising one's 'enterprises' on the net...
is NOT private, it is BUSINESS. The right-wing is trying to sell the faux line of this being private and personal. It is sad when dems buy that faux argument.

The 'this is private' is a red herring.

A faux reporter for a faux news agency had immediate and special access to the White House and to the President's news conferences. He also was one of the FEW who was allowed to ask a question at the President's very RARE news conferences and you say it is all just coincidence, I think not.



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BurtWorm Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Feb-15-05 12:56 PM
Response to Reply #35
37. I don't see what the crime is. I'm not even clear on what the outrage is.
Walt keeps saying prostitution is a crime. Does Walt, or does anyone here, want a crack down on this kind of prostitution? Is that what the outrage is? That people actually sell their bodies on-line? That's the outrage?

Are people outraged that an "illegitimate" journalist has a seat at White House press conferences and briefings because they believe "legitimate" journalists are doing such a great job ferreting out the truth at these briefings? Or are they outraged just by the possibility that THE one truth-finding reporter who MIGHT be out there may not be getting a seat because at least one of them is filled by a shill? Do people really expect to hear the truth coming from Scott McClellan no matter who is asking the questions?
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Spazito Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Feb-15-05 01:07 PM
Response to Reply #37
40. What is the harm in DUers and/or bloggers investigating??
If it goes nowhere, so be it. If, however, it does lead to connections to the White House, etc, would that not be valuable information to know?

DUers and bloggers are capable of multi-tasking and 'Gannon' is only one focus and, if they feel it is worth the time, I don't see why you want to discourage them.
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BurtWorm Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Feb-15-05 01:11 PM
Response to Reply #40
41. If they want to go chasing after wild Gannon, who am I to try to stop them
I can only say what I think after looking at the same evidence. I have that right too, right? ;)
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Spazito Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Feb-15-05 01:14 PM
Response to Reply #41
42. Absolutely! The debate about this issue is what it is all about
and why DU is so valuable!

What would we debate if all agreed on everything in every way?
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ultraist Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Feb-15-05 04:43 PM
Response to Reply #34
66. Probing deeper into Gannon's life will lead to WHO hired and paid him
to be a propaganda operative for the Bush admin. It may also lead to WHO leaked the Plame info. Both are very relevant issues to address.
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BurtWorm Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Feb-15-05 05:01 PM
Response to Reply #66
72. Horny gay guys paid him.
But TalonNews.com evidently was too cheap to.

And I doubt he "knows" anything more than what any other dumb freeper "knows" about Plame.
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Walt Starr Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Feb-15-05 12:02 PM
Response to Reply #22
32. Read the services he offered
He noffered sex for money. That's prostitution and it's a crime.
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Enraged_Ape Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Feb-15-05 12:58 PM
Response to Reply #22
38. Read his "testimonials" from satisfied customers
This guy was offering more than just hanging off of someone's arm at a party.
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Walt Starr Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Feb-15-05 10:55 AM
Response to Original message
5. Fitzgerald should still press prosecution
at least find out who gave him access to the White House Press Corps. Based upon his Freakerland posts, the guy definitely was given information even if he did not actually see the memo.
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BurtWorm Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Feb-15-05 10:58 AM
Response to Reply #5
9. He may have only seen what any other freeper or winger saw
around that time. He's demonstrated that he has the freeperish trait of regurgitating any old thing he reads from a right wing source.

(I think Dems should try our best not to emulate this trait of the lowest of low wingers.)
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Walt Starr Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Feb-15-05 11:12 AM
Response to Reply #9
16. Check the dates on his posts n/t
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atommom Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Feb-15-05 10:56 AM
Response to Original message
7. I've been wondering about that from the start. He seems to be
an attention-craving loudmouth, and he may well have invented stories to make himself seem like a bigshot. OTOH, who would have thought he could have gotten into the WH press corps in the first place? How can we tell now what is too ridiculous to believe...? :shrug:
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NervousRex Donating Member (958 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Feb-15-05 11:00 AM
Response to Original message
11. Paula Jones was a lying little nothing...
Guckert got into the White House.
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Warpy Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Feb-15-05 11:03 AM
Response to Original message
12. Oh, I think he saw the pieces of paper
but I rather doubt he had the leisure to read them. I think they waved the paper at him and told him what it said.

This bunch plays fast and loose with law, treaty and constitution. I suspect that anybody who gets into their inner circle is assumed to be rigidly loyal and therefore above the law.

The big questions remain: Who got this guy past the FBI and Secret Service with his alias and his sleazy background? Who set up Talon just to get him some fake credentials as a reporter? Who kept him around for two years?

He's got a sugar daddy in there somewhere. There's no way a gay B&D prostitute could have gotten in there otherwise.

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BurtWorm Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Feb-15-05 11:34 AM
Response to Reply #12
20. Talon.com is the creation of Bobby Eberle
who is as constipatedly Republican as they come. They did not create Talon for Gannon. They created it to glorify their Christian-oriented gopusa.com Website. These people are Kool-Aid drinkers of the Christian right, the kind who believe God endowed the US with George Bush at this time of impending Rapture. They're culture warriors. According to the First Amendment, they're free to do what they're doing.

Gannon, an all around whore, took advantage of these saps' need for a sap like him who would go to the WH press conferences under the Talon name so that Talon could say, "Lookie, lookie, we have a White House correspondent just like a REAL news agency!" The White House press office probably saw that these guys were right-wing Republican propagandists and saw absolutely no downside to letting them in, especially in an election year and at a time when the press was becoming more cirtical by the hour and it couldn't hurt to give McClellan a little oasis of sap in the midst of all the snarkiness of the usual press corps. I don't see any crimes being committed if this is an accurate picture. I don't think they cared what Gannon liked to do in the dark (and I think that's a good thing) as long as he had no warrants out for his arrest.

Gannon, I believe, is the type of freeper who believes every thing he hears out of Rush Limbaugh/Sean Hannity/Bill O'Reilly's mouth. I think he's a blowhard who likes to impress his freeper buddies with how important he is. So when there was news about a memo circulating "proving" that Plame recommended Wilson for the Niger mission, Gannon took to dropping hints, in public and on TalonNews.com, that he was in the circle of privileged winger journalists who'd seen the document. That may have earned him a subpeona from the grand jury, and it certainly seems to have earned him a visit from the FBI. I'll bet the FBI found out he was bullshitting and he got dropped from the list of subpeonaed "journalists."

People here seem to forget how fast news travels when you visit blogs and Internet forums religiously. I don't think anyone has shown that Gannon actually broke any "news," have they? He may have been in the chorus chiding Rather for the Guard memos, but someone else in freeperland actually "broke" that one, right? Of course he would pick up on it, considering where his political roots are.
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itzamirakul Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Feb-15-05 11:13 AM
Response to Original message
17. He received journalistic training for
Edited on Tue Feb-15-05 11:14 AM by itzamirakul
two days at a workshop sponsored by Karl Rove associates. Talon News, the organization for which he supposedly worked, was set up by associates of the White House three months before Gannon recieved his daily press pass.

So, he is apparently better connected than you may think.
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BurtWorm Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Feb-15-05 11:40 AM
Response to Reply #17
23. So what?
No one has explained to me very well what the creation of Talon and Gannon did for the White House beyond giving poor little Scottie a break from those mean old reporters asking nasty old questions.
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itzamirakul Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Feb-15-05 02:28 PM
Response to Reply #23
47. I would think that giving either Scottie or Bush
"a break from those mean old questions" would help the White House enormously as they distract focus from any situations or issues that might be difficult for them to explain away.

Also, the creation of such a website/fake journalist is known as propaganda - paid news and is illegal for the U.S. Government to participate in.
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BurtWorm Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Feb-15-05 03:04 PM
Response to Reply #47
51. Why would they have to worry about distracting an opposition
that jumps all over a dump freeper for a week and a half as though they've discovered the key to all mysteries. :eyes:
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TWiley Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Feb-15-05 11:43 AM
Response to Original message
24. I was wondering if he was actually a CIA agent.
As bizarre as this whole story is, it is the only answer that makes any sense.

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BurtWorm Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Feb-15-05 11:48 AM
Response to Reply #24
26. I don't think so.
If he tried to become an agent of any kind, the government would certainly have found out about his proclivities and business acumen. Unless you think being an escort is part of his cover, or something. ;)
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ultraist Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Feb-15-05 04:48 PM
Response to Reply #26
67. right, a 30 second background check would show he is a criminal
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TWiley Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Feb-16-05 06:12 AM
Response to Reply #26
80. It is rather well known
that the CIA uses sexual encounters to further it's ends. Someone like him might come in handy. Someone who was not so disposed might find that particular type of work assignment a bit strenuous.

Hoover blackmailed many people, and having someone like Gannon on the payroll would be handy during such an operation.

I have no proof concerning Gannon; I only have a suspicion. It would neatly explain how someone could come from obscurity and into the WH press corps without any credentials, and allegedly view classified CIA documents.

Consider this baseless speculation:

If Gannon was CIA, and a democratic journalist outed him, the bushtapo would be all over the story, and they would prosecute.

In the minds of the general public, the name "Valerie Plame" is long forgotten. But they do remember that a CIA agents identity was illegally disclosed by someone. It would be a cinch to insert "Gannon" in place of "Plame" in the minds of the general public. Someone goes to jail, mystery solved, but Plame incident, and its apparent links to the White House, would remain unresolved.

A similar thing happened with the bush military record. Story cites a document, document is forged, therefore the story is false; when in fact the story was true. Bush did receive preferential treatment, and there is large gap in his military record which could be interpreted as him being AWOL.


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peacetalksforall Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Feb-15-05 11:50 AM
Response to Original message
27. You really are intent on persuading others that Gannon is only a
big mouth.

No harm done. End of story. Wipe hands. Drop it?
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BurtWorm Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Feb-15-05 12:05 PM
Response to Reply #27
33. I think it's probably all played out.
I'd hate to see DUers and others on the left go chasing after this story the way wingers chased after Whitewater and the Vince Foster "murder" if there's nothing to it.

What is the object? The object is always to hurt Bush, isn't it? If Bush isn't going to be hurt by this, and if only some pathetic freeper is, then why should a whole pack of us keep after him?
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peacetalksforall Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Feb-15-05 12:51 PM
Response to Reply #33
36. I couldn't disagree more. We must stand up. They expect to get away
with every illegal and unethical thing they do. We are crazy to prostrate ourselves at their feet and say Yes'm.

I vehemently disagree with you.

My words from another thread:

1. Plame memo - involves federal law breaking. Mr G appears to have inside knowledge to those who initiated the decision to break the law.

2. Mr G cannot be separated from his employer, Talon News/GOPUSA. It now appears that they may have written false stories about terror threats. Mr G's employer is quite connected to the Bush regime for about 30 years. Most recently, Mr G's employer facilitated and/or funded a smear campaign against Sen. Daschle and Sen. Kerry.

3. The wife of a person who is on the Board of Directors of GOPUSA is the Bush's Director of Personnel.

4. Talon News was set up on the internet within four days of Mr G being given his first White House Press Conference pass.

5. Mr. G. and Scott McLellan, the White House Press Secretary may have known each other previously.

6. It is obvious the White House set up a phoney journalist to ask opiniated and partisan questions just as they have set up and paid for phoney news articles, opinions, and guest expert appearances on tv and newspapers by other so-called journalists.

7. Mr G appears to have run his own business for same sex 'companionship'!!!.

8. MSM is covering it all up. MSM must have been complicit in the arrangement because it highly unlikely that they didn't know that TalonNews was a fake news set-up. By their non-objection, it appears that they MSM-US could have been told by the WH that they were planting a stooge so that the MSMs could appear to remain clean in the operation to write pro-rightwing propaganda and ask pro-right wing questions.

So we are talking duplitious agendas, ethics, pornography, pimping, partisan politics for profit, and most importantly, - the breaking of a federal law, if not local laws.

The issues are also that these are the people who are supported by and work hard to get the voter block who despise same sex unions, same sex acts, same sex marriages and who have a history of persecuting people who participate in same sex acts and who are doing everything possible to change the constitution to provide a federal law against marriages and who are dividing the country because of their efforts.

These are the people who said they would bring honor and integrity back to the White House in their suits and ties.

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BurtWorm Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Feb-15-05 01:06 PM
Response to Reply #36
39. My response point by point
Edited on Tue Feb-15-05 01:16 PM by BurtWorm
1. Plame memo - involves federal law breaking. Mr G appears to have inside knowledge to those who initiated the decision to break the law.


I doubt he has seen it. He seems only to WANT people to think he's seen it because it makes him feel important.


2. Mr G cannot be separated from his employer, Talon News/GOPUSA. It now appears that they may have written false stories about terror threats. Mr G's employer is quite connected to the Bush regime for about 30 years. Most recently, Mr G's employer facilitated and/or funded a smear campaign against Sen. Daschle and Sen. Kerry.



Can you not be separated from your employer? Is that how it works now? I'm my employer? (By the way, if Talon is Gannon's employer, how much were they paying him?)

This Bush regime has only been in power for five years--11 if you count the governorship, but that was a different regime. How connected are they? They're both from Texas, both Republicans, both fundamentalist Christians. Are there closer ties than shared attributes that you know about?



3. The wife of a person who is on the Board of Directors of GOPUSA is the Bush's Director of Personnel.

Is that a crime?


4. Talon News was set up on the internet within four days of Mr G being given his first White House Press Conference pass.

So?


5. Mr. G. and Scott McLellan, the White House Press Secretary may have known each other previously.


May have? So?


6. It is obvious the White House set up a phoney journalist to ask opiniated and partisan questions just as they have set up and paid for phoney news articles, opinions, and guest expert appearances on tv and newspapers by other so-called journalists.


I don't think it being "obvious" is proof that they did. And even if they did, so what, if it wasn't funded by taxpayers?

(By the way, the ones who were payed for by tax payers are another matter entirely. That should be a crime, for the government to pay for free-lance propagandists, especially at the rates they were paying them.)


7. Mr G appears to have run his own business for same sex 'companionship'!!!.


Shocking.



8. MSM is covering it all up. MSM must have been complicit in the arrangement because it highly unlikely that they didn't know that TalonNews was a fake news set-up. By their non-objection, it appears that they MSM-US could have been told by the WH that they were planting a stooge so that the MSMs could appear to remain clean in the operation to write pro-rightwing propaganda and ask pro-right wing questions.


It could be that they're just unimpressed with Gannon/Talon etc.
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Dawgs Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Feb-15-05 01:31 PM
Response to Reply #39
43. So, by your response...
You pick and choose what you want to believe, and disregard the facts by saying "So".

It's obvious you don't have a problem with the MSM, Gannon, or the way the White House is controlling the media. Explain to us why you are here?

Yes, this story alone may not be the smoking gun, but the manipulation of the media by this administration has been flatly ingnored by the MSM. Yet, Dan Rather, one of the most respected journalists of the past thirty years was outed for making a small mistake.

How you can ignore Gannon is amazing. If you are okay with how the administration used this man, then I am embarrassed you call yourself a Democrat.
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BurtWorm Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Feb-15-05 01:41 PM
Response to Reply #43
44. I am embarrassed that Democrats are working themselves into a froth
over a gay prostitute. Very reminiscent of the worst of the 1990s, when wingers were fulminating over blow jobs in the White House. :eyes:

Areas where I'm sure we agree:

1. The Bushists are incompetent, even evil at governing, but masters at propagandizing. (Unfortunately, there's no law against being incompetent or against propagandizing.)

2. The mainstream media suck as watchdogs. They don't deserve First Amendment protections. Many of them are complicit in Bushist propagandizing, either as unwitting dupes, useful idiots, or paid whores. (I think Gannon is at most a couple of those, but I doubt even the Bushists are dumb enough to blow bucks on a blowhard idiot like Gannon, unless they wanted someone to prance around at parties wearing nothing but army boots and a smile, in which case, I don't need anymore information about that.)
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Dawgs Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Feb-15-05 02:25 PM
Response to Reply #44
45. I haven't seen one person here working themselves into a froth over a...
gay prostitute. If you can show me a post, then please forward it to me.

My problem with your comments are the way you make excuses for this administration. After all that they have done, why can't you believe that they knowingly used Gannon? They certainly know that they can fool the media and many in the American public(at least 51% of them). Just look at the Swift Boat Vets.

I am just amazed at your apathy. This man(Bush) lied us into an unjust war where thousands upon thousands of innocent people have been killed. I really don't care what brings him down. If it's this stooge like Gannon, then so be it. After what they did to Clinton, I really hope they all rot in hell.

I don't think anyone here is bashing gays, prostitution, or anything else you don't have a problem with, but they are bashing this administration. A man with these credentials should not get this close to the President without any scrutiny whatsever. That is the problem we all have. That, and the fact this man is a shill for the right.
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BurtWorm Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Feb-15-05 02:55 PM
Response to Reply #45
49. I challenge your premise that a person can be unimpressed with the Gannon
Edited on Tue Feb-15-05 02:55 PM by BurtWorm
thing and not be outraged over the lies that got the US into an unnecessary and unnecessarily expensive war in Iraq. It's foolish to think of this Gannon bullshit as a litmus test when there are so many vastly more serious fucked up things going on with the Bush administration. Focusing on Gannon while Plame/Iraq/Iran/SS/etc. are going on is, in my opinion, a wasted effort. But if you want to do it, fine. I won't even accuse you of being a bad Democrat for it. ;)
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itzamirakul Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Feb-15-05 02:34 PM
Response to Reply #44
48. While you are busy being embarrassed by the Democrats, the Republicans
Edited on Tue Feb-15-05 02:36 PM by itzamirakul
are busy defending this man that they created as a supposedly LEGITIMATE news outlet and journalist.

You need to study a little more. It is against the law for the U.S. government to be involved in propaganda (paid propaganda) such as Jeff Gannon, Maggie Gallagher and Armstrong Williams.

I would think that, as a good Democrat, you would be outraged at these sneaky tricks...but then, it takes all kinds....
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BurtWorm Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Feb-15-05 03:02 PM
Response to Reply #48
50. Gannon is a different case from Williams/Gallagher et al.
Gannon is an easy target. The other ones are much more dangerous.

What too many people here believe is that you have to swallow the whole DUer-approved enchilada. That's foolish, in my opinion. Part of it, including the use of taxpayer funds to sell a political point to the public, is outrageous. Gannon is mildly outrageous, but he has nothing to do with the Bushists. He's just a dumb freeper. That's my position. He is now a very attractive red herring, pulling DUers and other investigators off the trail of the serious shit the Bushists and their winger partisans are getting away with. Okay, it was fun to ruin Gannon last week. But this is a new week. While we were having fun deflating a freeper, the wingers pulled down a key witness to serious shit in Iraq, Eason Jordan, because of unsuitably anti-military noise he made at Davos. Are you aware of that?
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peacetalksforall Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Feb-15-05 03:20 PM
Response to Reply #50
54. Your entire argument is in this one statement:
"He's just a dumb freeper."

The logic I was taught says that this is much more serious.

I'd like to ask Joe Wilson and Valerie Plame if they think he is just a dumb freeper.

This has spider webbing all over the place.

Dems must stand up and can't continue to shut up about all the bs - especially about WMD and because of the horrors of our loss of a fair media . Take it all the way to the inner kernel of truth for the sake of hypocrisy if nothing else.

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BurtWorm Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Feb-15-05 03:29 PM
Response to Reply #54
58. No one is asking you to shut up about the bullshit.
Go ahead and waste your breath about it! See if I care. Go ahead and ask Plame/Wilson if they think "Jeff Gannon" is a key to all Bushist mysteries. Go ahead!
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lawladyprof Donating Member (628 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Feb-16-05 08:37 AM
Response to Reply #33
81. I won't hate it if it proves as profitable to our side as Whitewater did
to theirs. Sorry, time to fight fire with fire. Whitewater-Monica brought us George W. Bush in 2000 and tens of thousands of people are dead or maimed as a result. Millions of Americans have suffered (lost jobs, health care, and much, much more). All the scandals and wrongdoing don't seem resonate with America. Sex and salacious misconduct does. It is a great shame and a pity but you have to use what works. I wish it were different, but I am haunted by the future suffering of human beings if this administration (the Republicans) continues unchecked.
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applegrove Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Feb-15-05 02:26 PM
Response to Original message
46. Yes but how did he know how to make such an 'informed' lie?
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mattclearing Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Feb-15-05 03:14 PM
Response to Original message
52. Only one thing makes me discount this - Bush called on him.
We know Bush doesn't randomly call people.
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BurtWorm Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Feb-15-05 03:25 PM
Response to Reply #52
55. He called on him because Scottie's people told him to.
That doesn't mean Bush knew anything more than he was going to get a nice softball lobbed at him.
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mattclearing Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Feb-15-05 03:26 PM
Response to Reply #55
56. But that proves White House complicity.
He's not just nobody.
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BurtWorm Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Feb-15-05 03:41 PM
Response to Reply #56
59. Complicity in what? In having softballs lobbed during press conferences?
Edited on Tue Feb-15-05 03:48 PM by BurtWorm
These people have done so much worse that that. They've had Colin Powell lie flat out to the UN to try to trick them into legitimizing their personal war in Iraq. They just handed over the budget surplus to their base and now they're planning to gut Social Security to create even more of a class-based society. And we're all hot and bothered by this jerk?!
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meisje Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Feb-15-05 03:44 PM
Response to Reply #59
60. But, But.....
He's a gay whore!!!!







end sarcasm.

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BurtWorm Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Feb-15-05 03:48 PM
Response to Reply #60
61. What?! He's gay?!
I didn't know that. ;)
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mattclearing Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Feb-15-05 04:22 PM
Response to Reply #59
62. I understand all that.
But they don't call on people unless they know the question. Which means they knew about him.
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BurtWorm Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Feb-15-05 04:33 PM
Response to Reply #62
63. I don't find that so disturbing, considering everything else
this group has done. This seems like small potatoes compared to the war, the lies, the stolen election(s), the secret government, the torture, the illegal indefinite detentions, the cronyism, etc., etc., etc.
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mattclearing Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Feb-15-05 04:39 PM
Response to Reply #63
64. Who said anything about disturbing?
It's nothing crime-wise, but it's totally salacious and obviously implicates White House officials.
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BurtWorm Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Feb-15-05 05:04 PM
Response to Reply #64
74. Thank you for being honest!
All it is is salacious. And it does vaguely implicate the White House--at least among people for whom the White House is already implicated. No one else is going to care unless something other than gay porn turns up.
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ultraist Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Feb-15-05 04:52 PM
Response to Reply #59
68. Hiring a paid propaganda operative is ILLEGAL
Why are you whitewashing that crime as "softballs during press conferences?"

The Bush admin has committed yet another crime and should be held accountable. They have already been caught breaking this same law three times now. Are we going to blow off 4 incidents of breaking this law? Why should we?
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BurtWorm Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Feb-15-05 04:54 PM
Response to Reply #68
70. Did they do that? How much did they pay him?
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ultraist Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Feb-15-05 05:02 PM
Response to Reply #70
73. He wasn't called on by coicidence, now was he?
He wasn't issued a pass on his own merits and because he passed the security background check legitimitely, was he?

The fact that his fake name was used evidences that.

SOMEONE wrote up his questions and planted him there. Do you think Gannon did this for free as charity work? That's pretty unbelievable.
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BurtWorm Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Feb-15-05 05:08 PM
Response to Reply #73
77. And what is the great outrage about him being planted there
assuming he was? Compared to the vastly greater outrages these guys are capable of?
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FreedomAngel82 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Feb-15-05 03:16 PM
Response to Original message
53. I wouldn't be surprised
I was watching the video of Olbermann interviewing this guy who interviewed him ("Gannon") and he was saying how one point of the interview the guy was crying and b.s. We all know how they play the games. He did this to himself and deserves it and it has to be found out who helped him get this far. How did he get to documents? I wouldn't be surprised if he was being paid to be a spy and the easy fishline question's.
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BurtWorm Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Feb-15-05 03:27 PM
Response to Reply #53
57. I'm guessing that he hasn't actually seen the documents.
I'm guessing that he insinuates that he's seen them, but does Judith Miller, who's in serious shit over this same issue, brag about being shown documents?
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mzmolly Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Feb-15-05 04:52 PM
Response to Original message
69. Could very well be. He doesn't have a history of being "honest"
:shrug:

Nominated for greatest as it's an interesting theory.
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BurtWorm Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Feb-15-05 05:10 PM
Response to Reply #69
78. Thank you, my dear.
I appreciate that! :toast: I'm marching to the beat of a different drummer on this one.
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mzmolly Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Feb-15-05 05:11 PM
Response to Reply #78
79. S'Alright, I march to my own beat allllll the time.
Heck, I like people who "think outside the box" :hi: keeps things interesting.
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ultraist Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Feb-15-05 04:57 PM
Response to Original message
71. Talon is a subsidiary of the Bush corp
Talon news/GOPUSA and possibly Talon Execs (who hold big money no bid government contracts) is a subsidiary of the Bush corp.

There are all sorts of laws that forbid this type of activity. An *elected* president, cannot create and maintain private entities to promote his agenda. We are not a corporatacracy.

Even 527s are not allowed to coordinate with political parties.
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BurtWorm Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Feb-15-05 05:07 PM
Response to Reply #71
76. Name one law that applies.
Show me where Talon is a subsidiary of Bushcorp. Be specific. Please.
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