Regular BRAD BLOG readers know that we took the opportunity of an invitation to interview Clint Curtis live at the Freedom Cinema Festival in Park City, UT, recently to grab a few days of vacation via roadtrip on the way there and back.
Persistent (but finally waning) headcold, exhaustion, and a welcome lack of net access kept us from documenting the event in any more than scant details until now.
Some of the most notable results from the event are now still in-progress. So we’re somewhat reluctant for the moment to show our hand on several of those in-progress connections made until more tangible fruit is borne from the various leads.
Holding back information from devoted readers is not something I’m entirely comfortable with. But we’ve learned along the way — especially when dealing with issues of the potential magnitude of the Clint Curtis story — that it’s smarter, when in doubt, to keep cards close to the vest in such cases, even at the risk of off-putting readers.
We don’t like to do it. But it is, apparently, a necessary evil if we are both to make headway and retain our fairly well-earned reputation here for getting it right, respecting our sources, and not giving away the ship until we are damned good and ready to let the chips fall where they may.
So, with all of that said, we hope to offer more details on the nefarious plans hatched and fruitful connections made via the FCF event when the time is right. Be that a few days, weeks or months from now as things shape up. We’ll see.
What we can report on for the moment is how things went in general, our impressions of Clint Curtis after having spent a fair amount of face-to-face time, and his answers to some of the questions sent in by BRAD BLOG commenters prior to the interview…
How things went in general…
Just fine thanks. The FCF itself was impressive, as quickly reported previously here and then here.
As the closing event for the festival, our interview was scheduled on the final Saturday of the Sundance Festival as folks were already heading out of town, so unfortunately the crowd was not as big as we might have liked. But even at capacity, the venue would have only held about 150 max. Therefore going in, both Curtis and myself understood that the real event would be dissemination of the taped interview later via the web or other means.
Much of the interview, by necessity, covered familiar ground to regular readers of The BRAD BLOG. But there were a few surprises that even I was unaware of until they came up during the session.
One was the revelation that Yang (YEI) offered Curtis $150,000/year to come back to his old job once they had learned that Curtis had begun working at the Florida Dept. of Transportation (FDOT). Apparently, YEI had learned about that fact by happenstance as someone had sent them an unrelated Email from FDOT that happened to have Curtis’ FDOT email address as a CC.
While Curtis says they never explained the reasons for their apparently urgent and “generous” (Curtis was previously being paid just $60,000/year when originally employed by YEI) interest in having him back under their employ, Curtis found the offer very curious.
The offer was made during a hastily scheduled phonecall with Mike Cohen (the executive secretary to YEI’s CEO Mrs. Yang) doing the speaking for YEI via speaker phone on his end.
After declining their offer of $150k, they upped the offer to include a three-year guarantee for a total package of $450k.
And after Curtis declined that offer as well — he explained to me that he simply did not want to go back to a company that he felt was “dirty” — he claims they offered him the real deal: They would double the offer to $1 million and he wouldn’t even have to show up to work in order to collect the salary!
Make of that what you will.
Between each offer, apparently, there were murmurs heard in the background, and then Cohen would come back with the next offer.
Curtis explains that he felt Tom Feeney was in the room during that call because, as Curtis clarified to me this morning: “They were saying, ‘Feeney can get you a job anywhere in the country, you can have any job you want.’ They were making all kinds of promises of things Feeney could do for me.”
All of which lead Curtis to believe that Feeney must have been in the room at the time of the call.
As he explained to me today, his understanding was that “Feeney would get me a job anywhere in the country…Anywhere but Tallahassee.”
And all of that, mind you, was before Curtis had even blown the whistle on YEI while he was at FDOT where he eventually saw the way that YEI had been padding the bill in their $8 million contract with FDOT — which they received with “no help at all” from their longtime friend Tom Feeney who was, at the time of procurement, their corporate counsel, registered lobbyist, and Speaker of the Florida House.
Why was YEI so eager to get Curtis out of FDOT and/or out of Tallahassee all together? We still don’t know directly. But much more troubling events to come in the following months — and to be discussed on the pages soon — would suggest that some very powerful and/or dangerous people must have had some very powerful motives to control the flow of information coming out of Tallahassee.
UPDATE 2/9/04: The following is from a report by the deceased FDOT Inspector General, Raymond Lemme. It is taken from an “Re-Interview” that Lemme conducted with Curtis on April 2, 2002. It would seem to contemporaneously corroborate the above story from Curtis, inasmuch as he didn’t just pull this story out of thin air in Utah in 2004:
The details shown (the Super Walmart, etc.) match those given to me recently by Curtis. The number $175k instead of $145 is slightly different, but I believe can be excused by either an error on the part of Lemme during the interview, or a slip in Curtis’ memory all these years later. In fact, tripling the $175 number for three years (as Curtis suggested they did) gives us $525k, which doubled then is just over $1 Million as Curtis reported.
The highlighting etc. was already in the document as I received it. More on the source for the above and information on the death of Raymond Lemme in an upcoming report.
The other most notable revelation from the live interview was the reception by the audience to an idea hatched over dinner the night before. An idea which is so tasty, so delightfully fun, irreverantly exciting and deliciously trouble-making that I’m actually sorry now that I brought it up in the interview at all! It might have been better to wait before giving an advanced heads-up on the notion by giving away the idea on video for all the world to know about.
That said — and since it is one of the items that I wonder if it’s best left under the radar until a later date — I will apologetically torture you with by leaving unmentioned at least until the video is made available on the net for full disclosure.
Don’t hate me because I’m beautiful.
Impressions of Clint Curtis after having spent a fair amount of face-to-face time with him…
If Clint Curtis is a huckster, or a pathological liar (as YEI is now claiming that they were able to get a “former employer” to actually say in a deposition…more on that scam in a later article), he’s a damned good one. And a damned dumb one.
Perhaps it’s just my lack of imagination, but for the life of me I can’t figure why Curtis would want to make up the allegations he’s making, give up a well-paying job because of them, risk his reputation, livelihood and life to accuse a few folks — with demonstrably dangerous and powerful friends — of explosively scandalous charges if there wasn’t truth at the core of his claims.
Yes, as has been pointed out by some of his critics, he did self-publish a book describing many of these matters. However, anyone who knows anything about how the self-publishing book game works will realize there is not a killing to be made in the pursuit of same. And Curtis has long ago taken down all links to the book from his website, and I’ve yet to hear him discuss it in an interview unless asked.
So, heading to Utah, I continued to be unable to grasp why Clint Curtis would, over a series of years mind you, make the explosive charges he has made — under penalty of imprisonment — unless they were true. Barring that Clint Curtis is a lunatic. So far, however, I’ve yet to come across a friend or colleague who finds him anything but the most credible, decent and trustworthy of folk…any that he hasn’t made charges of wrong-doing against in any case.
Therefore, I’d hoped upon meeting Curtis to find some reason to lose confidence in the man who I’ve been writing about for two months now, but had only ever spoken with via phone and/or email and for whom the only picture I had in my head was a video of the back of his as seen testifying under oath before members of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee at their hearings in Columbus, OH.
After several days, dinners, discussions and drives in and out of downtown Park City with both him and his girlfriend of 16 years, I was unable to find a crack in his fa硤e. And I’m usually rather good at sniffing out inconsistencies, liars and/or sociopaths. Curtis still, after quite a few hours and attempts to break him, still seems as very credible as he ever has. Which is to say, plenty.
In fact, his girlfriend still considers herself a Republican even now. And it’s with no small amount of discomfort that Curtis, when asked, will now describe himself as a conservative Democrat. Always with the emphasis on conservative. That, after a lifelong sentence as a Republican. At least until he got a rotten whiff of some of the most powerful Republicans in this country anyway.
His predilections, however, still seem to fall resolutely into stereotypical “Republican” territory. He was, as photos from the event will testify, perhaps the only person in the vicinity of the entire laid-back, Hollywood-on-Winter-Vacation Sundance Festival to sport a coat and tie. And after we caught part of Angela Shelton’s superb Searching for Angela Shelton documentary (described briefly in this earlier post) during which the filmmaker and film’s namesake expresses a moving and angst-filled profane tirade at having sat quietly while her father and one-time molester denied anything at all had ever happened, both Curtis and his girlfriend spent most of the ride home describing how “unnecessary” they thought such language was.
Once a Republican, always a Republican, I guess. No matter how many bad apples you’ve seen first-hand floating to the top of the cesspool.
The questions sent in by BRAD BLOG commenters…
Before leaving, I had opened up this thread for any of our devoted readers who might have questions they’d wished me to ask of Curtis directly in the interview.
I’m sorry to report that time overtook us, as did questions from the audience, and so the hour allotted for the interview flew by too fast to get to the bulk of the questions from commenters here. There was time only at the end to get in one of the many excellent questions you guys had asked me to ask. And so I sent him my prepared, but unused, list of same so that he could at least gives a few answers to your questions via Email.
Here now then are those questions-by-you followed with answers-by-Curtis as received via Email. The bulk of them won’t be in the video of the interview, but at least he was kind enough to supply a few direct answers to you all for posting here…
I recently read Curtis’ book. Amazing story, that. I’m convinced (as he seems to be) that the more people that know, the safer he is.
But one thing NOT covered in the book was the vote-rigging story. If you can, Brad, ask him why it is that Clint didn’t mention that part of the story in his book.
Original book came out to be about 600 pages so I had to edit it in half. While I mentioned the Feeney Vote rigging program in the original draft, I didn’t detail it much because before Oct of last year I didn’t realize that the common sense safeguards detailed in the report I provided to the Yangs/Feeney were implemented as US voting policy. Even the most reckless programmer would know better than to allow for proprietary source code with no means of verification. While I didn’t detail it that much I did reference it in the books back cover (thought I had left more in the book than I actually did). After years of reporting the incidents to the press and authorities, it was also one of the items that received the least attention. With the exception of Lemme, everyone’s focus was always been on the other elements with only passing interest in the vote fraud program. Until recently, no one seemed to care.
Question for Mr Curtis, I would like to know if He knows if there is an FBI investigation going on about the vote rigging.
I have reported everything to the FBI. They have not confirmed that they are doing anything.
you currently gainfully employed? If not, are you living off savings or are your activities being financed, and if the latter, by whom?
Currently a programmer for a small company. No outside financing.
If the House Judiciary Committee conducts a full investigation, do you expect to be called to testify?
I am willing to assist in any way possible.
Hi, Brad – If election reform is NOT achieved by 2006, ask Clint if America can out-hack the Bushite hackers and make the fraudulent computer counters fail totally – forcing manual paper voting. America needs to beat these thieves at their little computer tabulating games.
The system can be beat by having everyone who wants his or her vote counted to do so by filing an absentee ballot. They also need to record their vote (copy of the ballot) to a secondary party such as UN election watchers or a neutral third party. This will have two effective results. Your vote will be counted AND you will crush the election system with an overload of paper. That will send the message that the machines must either be replaced or every election will result in paper gridlock. It will also allow us the opportunity to know even prior to the election how many votes we need to produce in order to produce results.
Please ask Clint what he knows about the Yang’s own immigration status do they have a green card, U.S. citizenship? If so, how did they get it? Did they employ others from China? Do they ever go back to China? How did they get here in the first place? Did it have anything to do with Feeney?
I think they are naturalized. They made many trips to China. One was on behalf of Feeney and Jeb Bush in 2000 in order to promote the outsourcing of technical jobs from Florida to China. Don’t know how or any Feeney connection about the Yang’s original move to this country.
Brad, please ask Clint the likelihood of Henry Nee corroborating his story. Has he tried to persuade the better half of Henry Nee to come out?
Henry is a spy. Henry is Chinese. Henry admitted to transferring military technology to the capital of Communist China at least twenty times and received only a $100 fine and has not even been deported. Why should he report on his benefactors. For him to do so would mean that he would betray his own country. Feeney might be willing to sell out his country but I don’t think Henry would be. I believe spies are fairly dedicated to their cause.
There you have it. All that I can (or am willing) to discuss about the Utah event for the time being. At least until the video is made available online and/or some other promising leads move forward.
Thank you all again for both your excellent questions and your continuing support, in particular over the last coupla weeks when I’ve needed to recharge a few batteries even while taking care of some important business.
As promised, there is (much) more to come in this fascinating continuing saga, and undoubtedly many others we don’t yet know about. So stay tuned.
Or, to wholly bastardize Casey Kasem’s once popular refrain: Keep your seatbelts fastened, and keep making noise…
Don’t worry about the noise, Brad. We’re like a hive of angry bees. We’ll make all the noise necessary. There’s a curious softness on China, it’s becoming increasingly evident. Perhaps a collusion of the "capitalist sell-out-the-prolls" kind. And the "regime" must service its followers. We’ll all be "workers" once this coalition is effected. I’m ‘way beyond conspiracy theory and into major crimes against law and humanity and the survival of the planet. Hurray, the capitalist states of America! May they die the death of a thousand fools, a collusion with communist China. And may the death be quick and painless. Because **sh wants a "clean" undermining of the ethical underpinnings of the world.
This is chilling stuff, and I find myself on the edge of my seat when reading it. He’s taking on VERY dengerous criminals here, and Curtis, and you, know it. Simply to avoid Ray Lemme’s fate, he must spend his life being as high-profile as he can.
Your blog may very well be the "’Deep Throat’-Woodward-Bernstein" of the century. Our country was quite lucky to find out the truth about Watergate. If it hadn’t been for a "whistleblower" bringing it to print, combined with an opposition congress, and the tapes, Nixon’s people would have been able to make that scandal seem like conspiracy whackos gone out-of-control, just like SO MANY ARE DOING RIGHT NOW TO YOU AND MR. CURTIS, by everyone who wants to believe this bunch of crooks are legit, or just don’t care, because they support their rise to power.
Keep up the fight. It’s damned dangerous, but it needs to be done. Brad, do you realise how little we’d know about this monumental, historical issue without the advent of The Internet? It’s the only chance we have of bringing down "Goliath"
Hope you win all the blog awards. I want to see you remain as high-profile as possible. It’s critical.
Many thanks to Clint Curtis for having a conscience and keeping it. Many people would have traded in their conscience for a smooth ride on the payroll tax.
Some people seem to think we’re anti-Republican conspiracy nuts. I am not a conspiracy theorist. None of us here are. At first, I truly believed that Bush won the election. It shocked me, but I accepted it. Then I read the affidavit. I was still hesitant to believe in vote fraud. But after lots of research, the evidence was too much. If Bush truly won the election, I wouldn’t be here supporting Brad.
And from what I read, nobody here is anti-Republican either. We’re simply anti-fascist. I personally thought John McCaine would have been a better president than Gore or Bush. But he lost my confidence once he rolled over backwards for Bush. And honestly, I think Nixon’s domestic policy wasn’t all bad. He created the EPA and prevented price gouging by big business. Clinton pushed through NAFTA. Which one of those two was the liberal?
Anyways, thank you Brad. And thank you Clint, Republican or conservative Democrat. Don’t give up the fight, and we won’t give up on you.
Hope this will open the eyes of some more of the non-facists in the republican party.
Brad expresses concerns like I had with Mike Ruppert. As of yet I, like Brad with Curtis, can’t find a hole in the logic. His story rings true, and it fits the other facts we have.
Curtis seems to me to be one of those traditional thinkers who are sometimes called "honest to a fault", meaning they don’t compromise their conscience.
I like that.
"GOP Pseudo-journalist Quits!" americablog.blogspot.com Holy Crap , that didn’t take long. Be interesting to watch the coverup
Brad – You and Clint Curtis better BOTH be careful, you know the kind of people with whom you are dealing.
This place is such a nice refuge for me. It’s nice to be able to discuss things without having to recap everything that went before and explain all the "tie-ins", because, for the most part, we are all on the same page – and of course for those just stepping in, there are the archives.
I’m still being labeled paranoid by those clueless Republicans who, though they can no longer deny any fraud took place, keep telling me "It happened about the same on both sides so I’d call it even"
HEEELLLLLOOO??
I keep telling them, be patient. Watergate took three years, it’s only been three months – and Karl Rove has sharpened his skills since then. I have to admit a certain sense of satisfaction in watching them get all cozied in for the next four years, while people like Clint Curtis are getting ready to yank the soft fluffy pillow out from under their smug little heads.
I think holding your cards close is best right now – besides the fact that it keeps investigations from being undermined, it gives "them" false confidence (aka, more rope with which to hang themselves). They’ll sing and dance about how all the "tin-foil hatters" and "sore losers" won’t accept that Bush won the election and just move on – let them keep celebrating, we know the truth, and we know it’s going to come out.
Just keep in mind those words of wisdom from our eloquent Commander in Chief – ""There’s an old saying in Tennessee — I know it’s in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can’t get fooled again."
Okay, now everybody wave at Big Brother – because you just KNOW someone’s paying attention now.
Right on, Brad! You’re doing a great service, and although we’re all champing at our bits to get down to brass tacks, we trust your judgment. Timing is every bit as important as the message, and going off half-cocked is always a bad idea (just look at how far it’s gonna get Bullsh and his cronies). Keep up the good work, and we’ll all keep digging until the CONS are all safely buried.
Thanks for all the hard work. Hope you win the award Brad, you deserve it. Fascinating stuff. You and Mr. Curtis are in my thoughts and prayers. Be safe..be public..
Morning everyone,
Off topic, but we don’t seem to have an open thread going (hint, hint)
Dahr Jamail has a new entry today.
And Kes, lol, I’m waving right now! Bring ’em on! In fact, I’m flipping them the one-finger victory salute…
Brad,
You give me hope. Thank you, Brad, and Mr. Curtis. You are both true patriots. The truth will prevail, and, hopefully, so will justice.
Feeney and Jeb were PROMOTING outsourcing technical jobs to China??? Do the Florida voters KNOW their elected officials actively promote shipping their jobs overseas??? Is that what Floridians vote FOR?
Hi Cheryl,
That is one powerful piece. I found myself flashing into surges of denial, floods of shame, all that. But then I remembered: By now everyone understands that Germans are not monsters, but that is how they were seen not so long ago. We now see that individuals acted so badly because they were led into situations of utter depravation and shoved along in that direction by their utterly corrupt, vile, etc., government. There is a grave responsibility indeed that comes with governing a people. The horrid, evil, etc., beasts that at least some of our boys in Fallujah have become are the products of a frighteningly similar regime. Too bad that Bullsh et al have no idea of what responsibility is. As Americans, we must understand that getting rid of the fascists is only our first task. We have a great deal to make up to the rest of the world after that. I’m sure each and everyone of us Bradvillers will pitch in as we can, cha cha cha!
Damn! Depravity was the word I wanted. Oh well…
Cheryl #10
I don’t know what to say right now. I am boiling with anger and hatred for "my" government, and what it is doing in our name! I never shy away from reading difficult stories, but this was hard,and I feel a disgusting sense of guilt as I sit here in front of my computer, nice and comfortable while attrocities are being commited in the name of liberty and democracy! I wish **** could get a taste of his own brand of freedom, and I wish I could be the one to personally deliver it to him.
My heart is sick and I want to cry………………
I meant to say that I wish FUCKING BUSH could get his taste!
I really agree with Horkus. I have many Republicans in my family, and I’ve voted for Republicans, in the past, myself. But this isn’t about Republicans, nor even Conservatives. This is about Fascists!
………….And to watch how they’ve reacted to getting to the bottom of all the questionable irregularities, by fighting all of it every step of the way, even breaking laws to accomplish it, SHOULD speak loud and clear to even the dimmest of the dim.
And KestrelBrighteyes made an excellent point: "I’m still being labeled paranoid by those clueless Republicans who, though they can no longer deny any fraud took place, keep telling me "It happened about the same on both sides so I’d call it even"………….voter fraud being "even" would be OK with somebody?
Fraud is fraud. We are all victims, no matter who wins. It’s not acceptable for either party to commit fraud. How many of you reading here think it was OK for Richard Daley to "steal" Illinois for John F. Kennedy? I don’t. It’s just as ugly now, having an administration we didn’t even vote for, in the office.
Cheryl – Thanks for the link (#10). How did human beings come to this? "American" human beings? "Representing" us? Does anyone else, after reading this, want to relinquish citizenship and found another country? Maybe we could lease parts of northern Greenland, which are melting fast.
Bob Bilse – How right you are. And fascism is NOT a political party. It is a complete automaton, a soulless, clanking monster which eats real people alive, tolerating only those who serve it, keep it well-oiled, gleaming, and well-fed.
And here it comes…..
CNN – U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said today that Iran must live up to its international obligations to halt its nuclear program or the next steps are in the offing. "And I think everybody understands what the ‘next steps’ mean," Rice told reporters after a meeting with NATO foreign ministers and European Union officials. In his state of the union address, President Bush singled out Iran as "the world’s primary state sponsor of terror — pursuing nuclear weapons."
Cheryl – I heard her too. Who needs the "news," folks? Don’t we all KNOW already what the next headline will be? One thing about this * regime. It’s predictable. And right on schedule.
"Fascism should rather be called corporatism, as it is the merging of government and corporate power."
–Benito Mussolini
It’s hard for me to imagine how anyone can really believe that the election was NOT stolen. All the evidence has flashing lights. All the reasons for the theft were there. And it is these people’s MO.
I said to myself that night,"This doesn’t add up", and I knew it.
Election tampering is a common thing. But this was too blatant as it was so obvious that Kerry couldn’t lose. Totally obvious.
I am outraged at the people for denying it so fervently.
My thanks, too, Brad and Clint. It was my hope from the first that these people would be convicted, and my belief that it was possible.
Of the thousands of crimes they have committed, this is the one I want them nailed for the most.
I trust your judgment on the Curtis information, Brad. But with the Florida press opening up the story further beginning tomorrow, you’re going to be asked to comment by other reporters because you recently interviewed him. I doubt that "no comment" will work.
Bob Bilse makes an excellent point. If Democrats stole Wisconsin and the Washington governor’s race (I personally doubt it, but it is possible), nobody should hide from it. Pursuing ALL FRAUD keeps so-called conspiracy theorists on the moral high ground.
Re Dahr Jamail’s journal:
This is truly heartbreaking.
I wrote to my US Senators and to Sens Kerry and Kennedy expressing my disgust and shame at the atrocities committed against innocent Iraqi citizens by our US forces, and the link to Jamail’s journal and asking them to read it.
I encourage the rest of you to contact your senators as well. We can’t count on the mainstream press to cover this; it’s up to us!
In comment #3, Horkus wrote: "Nixon’s domestic policy wasn’t all bad. He created the EPA and prevented price gouging by big business. Clinton pushed through NAFTA. Which one of those two was the liberal?"
Ummm… neither!
G #23 … right on; and I hasten to add: wedded (embedded) with the military …
I sent an email to Rep. McKinney (D-Ga) a month or so ago, asking her to look into the Lemme matter.
Never heard from her or her staff. What is up with that?
Me again. Still off topic, but re #21, under the circumstances I don’t think I’d be giving up nuclear technology either. I’d say it was the only protection that I had.
Funny how Rice talks about using the UN now! I thought they were *irrelevant*! Hope they don’t get sucked in by Bushco.
Cheryl – this is the continuation of another thread and a question you posed in it at the time about poll reliability. I responded that that CNN/Gallup poll HAD to have been rigged, because Amy Goodman has just reported an independent poll showing *’s approval rating at 43%. Well, guess what? Hot from a link at Raw Story:
"Wednesday :: Feb 9, 2005
"Yesterday’s Gallup Poll Showing Bush Approval At 57% Had 9% More Republicans Than Democrats
The more things change, the more things stay the same. And Gallup is showing us that a leopard doesn’t change its spots.
"On the heels of the Iraqi election, and with the White House needing a boost in Bush’s image and approval ratings as he tries to ram through a terrible budget and Social Security privatization plan to a wavering GOP, much was made yesterday about the most recent CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll done over the weekend. This poll, bull-horned through the media and rightwing blogosphere, showed an incredible jump in Bush’s approval rating to 57%, a five-point jump from the polls done in early January. Yet even those earlier January polls it turned out were suspect because, you guessed it, they were based on a sample that had more Republicans in it than Democrats (37.2% GOP, 35.6% Democrat, and 27% Independent).
"So is this recent poll, showing Bush with a growing and mandate-building approval rating of 57% a clear sign of emerging Bush strength?
"Hardly. The poll trumpeted far and wide yesterday by CNN, USAT, and the right wing blogosphere was based on a sample constructed by Gallup that contained 37% Republicans, 35% Independents, and only 28% Democrats.
You read that correctly."
Is there ANY information out there that we don’t have to view with the utmost skepticism? No, of course not. How naive of me for even asking.
Hi, Cheryl – #28, #29
Quite frankly, I’m more concerned with DUMYA and the gang having "nucular" weapons than Iran…
Beyond me how America thinks it can and should control the rest of the world thru murder…I guess that’s what you do when you don’t have a brain…and when you don’t have a brain, you always lose in the end.
It’s time for the rest of the world to stand up and be counted…tell DUMYA to go to HELL where he and his gang belong…and follow up with sanctions…it’s better than more war and deaths of innocents…
Or was that Teresa? Or was it both of you and Peggy too? Nana? Oh well, we’re all in this together!
Yup, Peg. One big happy oppressed fascist ruled family.
Communist China was relied upon by the Bushit strategy, so they say, to avoid a mushroom clound in N. Korea. But N. Korea says here it has the weapon.
With the Nee part of the Curtis story, and the little slap on the hand for communinst spying on the US, without deportation of the admitted spy, and Feeney and Bush exporting jobs to China … doncha just wonder how serious the bushit rhetoric is?
I mean, if N. Korea had oil but Iraq had none wanna bet the entire story about bringing demockracy would be different?
I don’t understand why no one has made any attempts to interview Ray Lemme’s wife? If he was really close to discovering something big on his case, his wife may know something about it… if not she may at least be willing to come forward if the story of his death seems fishy… why has there not been more of an attempt to go this route??
Morning Dredd,
What did I say about protection from an aggressive US in #28? That’s exactly the position the North Koreans have taken. This *war on terror* and disgustingly illegal war on Iraq has done nothing but encourage the rest of the world to arm themselves in self-defense. No nukes….no wars….I wish I could be sure that Bushco are smart enough to NOT start a nuclear war, but I’m not.
Robert Lockwood Mills, Re: Wisconsin and Washington – I’d be glad to see a trade made: Let’s do a paper re-vote in Wisconsin and Washington, in trade for a paper re-vote in Ohio and Florida.
….And "G", of course, whatever we call it, Fascism or Corporatism, we all know it plays out to the same thing, and at least alot of us are aware it is happening in our country. There once was a time when Dick Cheney would be "gone" for that Halliburton no-bid contract in Iraq. Now, It almost seems like its been "swept under the rug", when it should actually be an anti-trust-law investigation.
Josh –
All in good time. Promise.
Thanks Brad. I figured you had thought of this already; as it would more or less make or break the story in my opinion.
I do what I can from the Heart of the Evil Empire here in militarized VA Beach/Norfolk:
Oceana NAS
Fort Story
Langley AFB
Home of The Mid Atlantic Fleet
Port Authority
lol!!! GOD HELP AMERICA
Regarding Halliburton and Cheney, it’s important to remember the details from history, and be patient.
The closest parallel to Halliburton is Teapot Dome, in the 1920s. In both cases the government made concessions to private energy companies (in the case of Teapot Dome, Sinclair and others) without a proper bidding procedure, behind closed doors, and with government officials having a personal interest in the negotiations.
Corrupt, right? Teapot Dome destroyed Harding’s reputation. BUT…IT TOOK SEVERAL YEARS. When Senators Walsh and Wheeler of Montana first conducted hearings, they were denounced by the New York Times as "assassins of character," and the Daily News’ choice of words was "Montana scandalmongers."
Finally, the truth won out. Fall went to jail. Daugherty didn’t, but his reputation was ruined. Harding became a bum in the history books. It will happen to the current regime, too. But we’ll have to be patient.
Thanks for your sage advice, Robert.
I remember re-learning again about the Teapot Dome scandal last summer during our travels (summer before?) and marvelling at how small that "scandal" seemed in comparison to the Halliburton chicanery.
Appreciate the history lesson and advice shared here.
Crimes seem to have an almost magical way of finding discovery. It’s like some huge game. I think criminals enjoy the cat and mouse game as much as anything. But there usually comes a time when they are ready to walk into the trap.
The solving of crimes is one of people’s greatest pleasures. I f they aren’t real ones, they are in books, movies , and television. Maybe there is something in the chip that wants to see the criminal get caught. Some of the most disturbing films were "Film Noir", a movement years ago, where criminals got away with their crimes. You still were left with the impression, though, that they would suffer for them in some big way. People need the resolution.
Guys,
I really don’t like Curtis’ answer to Peggy’s question about hacking the Repug’s hacked machines. His last sentence sounds as if he’s advocating election fraud on the part of the Dems:
"It will also allow us the opportunity to know even prior to the election how many votes we need to produce in order to produce results."
The question was not how to produce results, but how to crash the system. Why would he take the next step and propose Dem fraud?
Also, why wouldn’t he mention the $1million job offer when Brad asked Curtis to respond to the "disgruntled employee" farce charges?
Any validity to my concerns regarding Curtis on these points? In any case, I hope Brad will note these seeming inconsistencies to further nail down his reporting on the Curtis story.
Also, if Curtis has a girlfriend of 16 years, a Republican no less, then Brad could really explore the family strain angle of this story.
At some point, Brad could really gain traction by bringing us not the story of Feeney’s crime, but Curtis’ story. Everyone understands the classic whistleblower’s story and this would humanize Curtis, and necessarily so. Curtis’ personal story of suffering would make for seriously compelling journalism and would provide another angle or hook for courageous media.
We need facts, but we need mythmaking as well. Curtis is a hero and if we tell a hero’s story more will listen.
I personally resolve to find the best writer, playwrite, artist, screenwriter, filmmaker, or journalist I can to take on Curtis’ personal story. Michael Moore,
Amy Goodman…geez who are the good, courageous writer’s…Bill Moyers, that producer that works for him that did the Tobacco industry whistleblower story for CBS that became the movie, "The Insider." Curtis may not be truly an insider, but he’s good.
OK, now that I got that off my chest…can you tell how wet behind the ears I am with this media thing? 🙂
I’ll try small first. My Pacifica Radio station here in LA, KPFK, and see what happens. I’ll let you all know.
I keep telling you guys this, but you do not listen. Curtis is a fraud and you are being duped. Have him take a polygraph with the nations best firm and have him submit to a psychiatric evaluation by the nations best.
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