READER COMMENTS ON
"CANNONFIRE: Evidence of DoD 'False Fronts' Converting IRS-Collected Revenue into GOP Paydirt!"
(60 Responses so far...)
COMMENT #1 [Permalink]
...
MMIIXX
said on 12/4/2005 @ 8:55 pm PT...
COMMENT #2 [Permalink]
...
tomz
said on 12/4/2005 @ 10:00 pm PT...
I hope this Cannon guy has a body guard! He's better than Fitz! And I didn't think that was possible.
COMMENT #3 [Permalink]
...
epppie
said on 12/4/2005 @ 11:05 pm PT...
What strikes me is that people always seem to poo poo conspiracy theories with the argument that conspiracies so large just couldn't exist. It seems to the the all purpose argument against Stolen Election theory, against worries re. the military-industrial complex and so on.
What strikes me as much more rational as a supposition is the idea that where billons and billons of dollars are at stake, maybe trillons, is it at all reasonable to suppose that it's all just left to chance?
I don't think so. I think the rational question isn't whether there are monstrous conspiracies out there. The rational question is more likely to be how monstrous are they?
COMMENT #4 [Permalink]
...
MMIIXX
said on 12/5/2005 @ 1:05 am PT...
oops ...fans (no editing)
COMMENT #5 [Permalink]
...
MMIIXX
said on 12/5/2005 @ 1:09 am PT...
TOMZ Joseph Cannon is a blogger ,I think.
COMMENT #6 [Permalink]
...
MMIIXX
said on 12/5/2005 @ 1:42 am PT...
COMMENT #7 [Permalink]
...
Floridiot
said on 12/5/2005 @ 2:53 am PT...
I went over to Cannonfire last Wed., been reading about this since
It is a great story, lots of twists and turns
I Hope it has legs
COMMENT #8 [Permalink]
...
Joseph Cannon
said on 12/5/2005 @ 4:22 am PT...
Thanks to all. No need a security guard. As my regular readers know, I have an extremely ferocious hound.
Normally, I'm happy with a small readership, but I asked Brad and others to help publicize this story because it deserves mainstream media or congressional attention. And if they refuse to touch it --- well, as Brad always says, it is then up to all of us to BE the media.
The goal is to get a "Fitz" on this case.
How many of you get the feeling that there are a lot of "funny" defense contractors like Wilkes out there...?
COMMENT #9 [Permalink]
...
Dredd
said on 12/5/2005 @ 5:34 am PT...
Joe #8 and Brad
All good investigations begin with a hypothesis. To only have a hypothesis is not wrong, nor is it wrong to hypothesize further.
In fact, it is wrong not to! Why? Because you are either going to exonerate those who deserve it, or you are going to expose those who deserve it.
Either way, investigations are good and moral. The bad stuff happens when we get too far afield from the actual evidence.
Anyway, the current climate in america is one of crime in the administration and in congress. Crime sufficient enough that indictments are already pending.
Another aspect of this climate is that indictments are being held back by congressional committee chairmen having their fingers in the dike.
What this story you are advancing does is to show us the size of the lake behind the dike ... we already know there is much water behind the dike and we already know each neoCon has many of his or her fingers in the dyke.
And we know they are running out of fingers fast ... and while they are stuck at the dike they are paralyzed. We have the upper hand.
Look at the DeLay story. The neoCons are afraid to let him back in power (link here). They know it bodes very badly for them. It could cause the dike to give way and they could all be swept from power and could even be swept into prison.
If there is to be a military coup in the United States, and believe me I am very surprised that it has not already happened, this story is one of the ways it could happen.
A quiet taking of America.
One of the tricks of the trade is to get congress blackmailed. Widespread money funneling of this type could do it. Get some money to the congress and then threaten to expose them if they do not go along for the ride.
There has to be more to the story of why congress is not overseeing anything to speak of. Something other that political discourse has shut them down.
The power to make a rubber stamp out of congress would have to be substantial. So the story fits a hypothesis, however, no damage will be done by investigating further and testing the hypothesis a bit more.
Even if the story ends up being inaccurate it should be followed and completed.
COMMENT #10 [Permalink]
...
Robert Lockwood Mills
said on 12/5/2005 @ 5:46 am PT...
I don't doubt that Joseph Cannon's story is real. A massive fraud against American taxpayers would just be part of an end-justifies-the-means mind-set on the part of this administration and its defenders.
Here are the basic premises they adhere to:
1) Government must be kept out of the hands of tax-and-spend, Godless liberals.
2) The one true God has anointed us to prevent this from happening.
3) Stealing elections is not criminal, because the end result is to be desired (see # 1).
4) Illegal fundraising is not criminal (same reason).
5) There is no such thing as right vs. wrong, only right vs. left (see bradblog header and also # 1).
The same inflexible ideology that got us into Iraq and keeps us there would quite naturally extend to diverting taxpayer dollars to defense contractors who accept no-bid contracts and reciprocate by enriching the party that assigned them. If the companies have built-in ties to the administration, it's a cinch...Cheney/Halliburton being Exhibit A.
COMMENT #11 [Permalink]
...
Floridiot
said on 12/5/2005 @ 6:13 am PT...
I think the illegal taking of taxpayer money for money laundering (through the Military Industrial Complex) goes back to the nineteen teens
Their just doing it with impunity these days
With no oversight, our Congress people let them do it
Hopefully, it will all come to a head these next few years
with people like Cannon, Friedman & the Six or Seven around
COMMENT #12 [Permalink]
...
Dredd
said on 12/5/2005 @ 6:17 am PT...
RLM #10 Agreed.
In reference to Halliburton I have a hypothesis that they are the ones receiving money that was to go for Katrina rebuilding efforts.
The oil rigs, which are in their family, took major hits. There has not been a lot of detail in the Presstitute media, but it would take billions to heal up the damage.
Obviously, from the exhorbitant profits reported by the oil barons, they are not spending their own money on repairs to the hundreds of offshore rigs that were damaged or destroyed by Katrina. Not to mention oil pipelines that were hosed.
So where is the money coming from? Taxpayer dollars that are being routed so the oil barons who run this government can gorge themselves further.
Meanwhile the great American City, New Orleans, suffers and dies.
"Good morning America, How are ya? Doncha know me? ... I'm your native son; I'm the train they call The City of New Orleans ..." (Arlo Guthrie).
There is so much corruption I can't keep track of it anymore. Neither can the presstitutes it seems.
COMMENT #13 [Permalink]
...
Armadillious
said on 12/5/2005 @ 7:37 am PT...
Hammer down and full speed ahead - let's nail those bastards and expose them for what and who they really are.
COMMENT #14 [Permalink]
...
John B
said on 12/5/2005 @ 8:00 am PT...
Brad, I share your concern about the scope of this. Yet when you look at corporations disassembling the right to vote, corporations manipulating energy markets to oust an elected governor in California, corporations having carte blance to bilk the government on relief operations - why should this surprise us? I think that this is a little like the tape on the door at the Watergate that the security guard found - looks like nothing too big in itself, but o what it lead to. The main problem is that these people appear to be very adept at covering their tracks. But follow the money, and it should reveal a much broader map. Good luck - you're going to need it!
COMMENT #15 [Permalink]
...
ChemBob
said on 12/5/2005 @ 8:39 am PT...
This country needs a hard reboot.
COMMENT #16 [Permalink]
...
Will
said on 12/5/2005 @ 9:41 am PT...
Nearly four years ago Donald Rumsfeld said ""According to some estimates we cannot track $2.3 trillion in transactions,"
Another quote;
"How do we know we need $48 billion since we don't know what we're spending and what we're buying?"
Retired Vice Admiral Jack Shanahan
COMMENT #17 [Permalink]
...
sandy
said on 12/5/2005 @ 9:45 am PT...
I have long thought the republican party was funded by taxpayers. I mean can you imagine greedy money grubbing thieves actually putting up their own money? Not! And if you'll really look at the financial situations of most of their religious base, it becomes even clearer they are stealing from taxpayers to support their "party". Right wing nuts don't use their own money and they are very proud of that fact. Now getting the story out there in a way that people will believe it is going to be very challenging. Most of our countrymen would rather keep their heads in the sand and not confront that kind of issue.
COMMENT #18 [Permalink]
...
onyx
said on 12/5/2005 @ 1:18 pm PT...
Contracting probe could extend to CIA
http://www.govexec.com/s...32916&dcn=todaysnews
According to past and present CIA officials interviewed over the past month, CIA executive director Kyle "Dusty" Foggo--whose career duties have encompassed letting CIA contracts--has had a long, close personal relationship with two contractors identified (though not explicitly named) in court papers as bribing Cunningham: Brent Wilkes of the Wilkes Corp., whose subsidiaries include defense contractor ADCS; and former ADCS consultant Mitchell Wade, until recently president of defense contractor MZM, Inc. It is a relationship, the CIA officials say (with some putting a particular emphasis on Wilkes), that has increasingly been of concern.
COMMENT #19 [Permalink]
...
big dan
said on 12/5/2005 @ 1:36 pm PT...
How far will the Republican Party go??? And these guys would never be in power, if it wasn't for stealing elections on DIEBOLD. It makes sense. If you steal elections, you don't have to answer to the voters, so you do whatever you want!
COMMENT #20 [Permalink]
...
big dan
said on 12/5/2005 @ 1:40 pm PT...
Hey! I love the way people like Joseph Cannon and Bev Harris actually post on this blog, when you run a story about them. That's cooooool!!!
COMMENT #21 [Permalink]
...
Kira
said on 12/5/2005 @ 3:03 pm PT...
What a can of worms but no surprise to some of us. I agree with Eppie #3 that to NOT believe in conspiracies is idiotic.
I haven't found time to read all the articles mentioned on all the links for this story but happened on this 2000 article in the San Diego Reader The Art of Cash Harvest
(From Page 3) [snip] The site goes on to say that "the Wilkes Group has been primarily involved in introducing legislation for defense-related industries. Wilkes has also been involved in International Business Transactions and within this capacity has worked with the U.S. Congress."
In fact, Wilkes, his company-run political action committee, the firm's employees, and members of their families have for the past four years been heavy contributors to federal campaign committees, according to financial disclosure records. From 1996 until this year, for example, Wilkes is listed as personally contributing $40,000 to a variety of congressional campaigns, including those of San Diegoarea Republican congressmen Ron Packard, Brian Bilbray, and Randy "Duke" Cunningham; Democratic senator Daniel K. Inouye of Hawaii; and Democratic Virginia senator Charles Robb. During the same period, Wilkes also gave $10,000 to the National Republican Congressional Committee and $5000 to a political action committee run by ADCS.
In December 1997, the Union-Tribune reported that Congressman Cunningham "helped direct $3.2 million worth of military business to ADCS Inc. --- the company of a campaign contributor --- despite Pentagon assessments that others had superior products." The story detailed charges by Don Lundell, identified as a former executive of Audre Inc., "another San Diego software company, now in bankruptcy proceedings." [snip]
A very in-depth coverage of ADCS from pg. 3-5. Maybe someone from this outlet would be hot to get involved on this research ??
Great work Joseph Cannon & all! Many thanks.
COMMENT #22 [Permalink]
...
pat
said on 12/5/2005 @ 3:13 pm PT...
In the government Central Contractor Registration directory there are 402, 737 contractors currently listed. I am sure the government does not do business with more than a couple thousand. It would be unmanageable otherwise. I hope that there is some program that can run the names and or addresses of these corps against the donor lists in Open Secrets. It is a big job, but very necessary in this age of white collar cronyism.
How profitable are the defense contracts when $2.5M can be given to Duke and an estimated $10M bat mitsvah for the daughter of a defense contractor who provided inadequate body armor to our troops.
COMMENT #23 [Permalink]
...
Kira
said on 12/5/2005 @ 3:29 pm PT...
PS I just thought it interesting that Brent Wilkes started out employed by Arthur Andersen.
Why do I (vaguely) remember a connection between Deloitte, Haskins & Sells (Now Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu International) had some ties with the electronic voting machine companies? Wilkes also worked with Deloitte Haskins & Sells. Anybody know of a connection here?
COMMENT #24 [Permalink]
...
ewastud
said on 12/5/2005 @ 3:43 pm PT...
Even if the accusations against Kyle "Dusty" Foggo mentioned by Onyx above are correct, and there was a three-way conspiracy of Cunningham-Foggo-Wade/Wilkes going on to game the programming of defense-related appropriations and the procurement of these government "services" from these favored scam artists, there could nevertheless be some tangible products delivered as a result of the contract. However, that deliverable might plausibly have been merely a pretext to appear to stay within the law while in actuality laundering most of the contract funds. The value of the contracts may have been grossly inflated vis-a-vis the actual cost of producing the contracted deliverable. This may very well be a pattern among a great many apparently legitimate contractors. However, when employees of these defense contractors complain of being coerced to make campaign contributions, you really know a scam is going on. In Hawaii, where the Democratic Party has had almost a lock on political power for decades, this was the sort of money laundering corruption that has been common for years between pols and non-bid engineering and architectural contractors.
COMMENT #25 [Permalink]
...
Kira
said on 12/5/2005 @ 3:50 pm PT...
Also - (For those who have time to research this stuff) Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu International -
[year] 2000 - Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu became a founding member of the United Nations Global Compact, which seeks to promote responsible global citizenship by advancing universal values in business operations around the world.
Corp Watch - UN Global Compact
Corp Watch articles on Brent Wilkes
COMMENT #26 [Permalink]
...
Kira
said on 12/5/2005 @ 4:13 pm PT...
Continuing with my sideline research re:Deloitte Touche:
State pact with Accenture draws fire
[snip] The new state voting registration list is needed to comply with the federal Help America Vote Act, or HAVA, passed in 2002. The law requires each state to compile, by January 2006, a voter list that can be checked against other lists, like those of drivers, felons and dead people. Its purpose is to ensure “uniform and nondiscriminatory” practices and catch voting fraud, something officials say has never been much of a problem in Wisconsin.
Indeed, Kennedy says he “would not” be seeking the creation of this list were it not required, “mostly because of the cost.”
Creating and maintaining the list is expected to cost about $22 million through 2010, not including some Election Board costs. Besides the $13 million deal with Accenture, $9 million will be spent building servers, hiring a project manager (the firm of Deloitte Touche has snared this $2.6 million contract) and hiring eight additional Elections Board workers. The cost of this and other HAVA-mandated changes, prominently including the requirement that every polling place have at least one fully accessible station for people with disabilities, will be covered by a $50 million federal payment.
Accenture’s job, says Kennedy, is to create a “total management package…to run our elections.” By this, he means the system’s tools will be used for all of the election-related tasks performed by municipal clerks. Election results, he promises, “will still be tabulated the same way they are now.”
But for citizens worried about the integrity of the state’s electoral process, any role by Accenture is a cause for concern. Florida’s recent experience is a key case in point. [snip]
COMMENT #27 [Permalink]
...
Robert Lockwood Mills
said on 12/5/2005 @ 4:15 pm PT...
Big Dan has it right. If you can steal elections, you have the power to do whatever you want.
Stalin. Marcos. Duvalier. Sukarno. Various African despots. Now Bush.
COMMENT #28 [Permalink]
...
Kevin Weiss
said on 12/5/2005 @ 4:31 pm PT...
The site Cannonfire is down. Was it taken down by the government?
COMMENT #29 [Permalink]
...
Kira
said on 12/5/2005 @ 4:34 pm PT...
It's definitely down ... hope it's just a matter of lots of traffic or refreshing.
COMMENT #30 [Permalink]
...
Liepar Destin
said on 12/5/2005 @ 4:52 pm PT...
Dont mean to take any glory from Joseph and his excellent research that got so many of us interested in this topic but while his site is down I have a diary at dailykos.com on the issue that rehash's a (small portion) of what Joseph has uncovered along with some excellent commentary (not unlike that in this thread) on the subject if anyone cares to take a glance.
COMMENT #31 [Permalink]
...
Kira
said on 12/5/2005 @ 4:59 pm PT...
Hi Liepar Destin - this is the link to your story that was posted in Cannon's work on ADCS --- is this what you refer to or do you have another page somewhere?
Thanks.
dailyKos story
COMMENT #32 [Permalink]
...
Liepar Destin
said on 12/5/2005 @ 5:01 pm PT...
COMMENT #33 [Permalink]
...
Liepar Destin
said on 12/5/2005 @ 5:10 pm PT...
Working on a new story now sorry, been spending countless hours matching Contractors and their family to donations via opensecrets. Just posting that link for the people who cant get to/havent been to Cannonfire but who'd like to know whats going on. Sorry for any repetitiveness or link-whoring.
COMMENT #34 [Permalink]
...
Kira
said on 12/5/2005 @ 5:24 pm PT...
Thanks for the work you're doing, LD. It's impossible for 1 person to do this kind of research work since it's so very complicated and far reaching. It takes a community!
COMMENT #35 [Permalink]
...
Winter Patriot
said on 12/5/2005 @ 5:27 pm PT...
Re #29 #30 and so on: Cannonfire is not the only blog that's down at the moment. So is everything else at blogspot.com, as far as I can tell.
Would "they" knock out blogspot just to shut down Cannonfire? Probably not. But there's never just one reason for doing something, or just one consequence of having done it. For instance, knocking out blogspot also shuts down Baghdad Burning, Bush Out, Simply Appalling, and many other fine blogs. It shuts down some other blogs too, such as the one I wanted to work on tonight
Oh well.
COMMENT #36 [Permalink]
...
Grizzly Bear Dancer
said on 12/5/2005 @ 6:04 pm PT...
Lets see we got a one party government controlled by the corporate elite called the Dumb (R) and Dumber (D) party . The Dumber party doesn't really count ya see because they're like the Washington Generals. That's the team that always plays the Harlem Globetrotters in a faux contest and LOSES> The reason the're called the dumb party is not because these greedy bastards are dumb (they think they're so smart) but because they have managed to convince a country that this fascist turn right wing government is a democracy of free people. I read in the Orange County Register (an example of the national propaganda machine) that the Iraq war is a good thing. Yeh it's a good thing we are making Iraq a democracy like ours (Rubish) because that country and that whole area was so unruly. Yahoo news declares (more from the BUSHIT propaganda machine) they have testimony that Sadam was so evil it's good he's gone now. NEVER MIND WE USED OUR MILITARY TO ATTACK A COUNTRY BASED ON BLATENT LIES UNDER THE DIRECT AUTHORITY OF MR. BUSHIT HIMSELF in a CONGRESSIONAL act that the FOUNDING FATHERS WOULD SPIT ON HIM AND THROW HIM IN JAIL FOR. The other backstepping rIGHT wING Bushit. Even though sex is used to sell virtually everthing in America in every aspect of our lives, these bastards want to reverse abortion so it can become illegal again. This is not going to stop abortions no. The rich will go to Canada or Mexico but American women will turn to the backstreet coat hanger style like THEY DID before it was legal. And you fckers in government should learn that if you stand in a frying pan and turn the heat on high you're gonna FRY!!! Indigenous people from the Arctic are meeting in Montreal, Canada with 189 other nations to discuss the rapidly melting ARTIC ICE and the changing climates effectively DESTROYING their hunting. OIL COMPANIES RUN THIS COUNTRY. U WANT TO SAVE THIS COUNTRY AND THIS WORLD. Stop corporate contributions to polical office holders and start supporting a party of real people facing the crisis in our world. Represent the real American Worker. It does not cost money to talk about ideas you cat people. Time is running out because THE DUMB PARTY (US GOVERNMENT) WILL CONTINUE TO MAKE THE WRONG CHOICE FOR YOU AND DRAG YOU ALL DOWN.
COMMENT #37 [Permalink]
...
ewastud
said on 12/5/2005 @ 6:06 pm PT...
It has been common knowledge that the Defense Department has been unable to audit their spending records and it has trillions of dollars unaccounted for going back many years. Might Cannon's hypothesis be one explanation why there is no serious motivation by the executive branch or Congress to make DoD fiscally accountable? It is a fiscal "black hole." DoD is not the only federal department or agency with such problems, but I work in the City government of Honolulu and that record of fiscal management would be outrageous and totally unacceptable at my level. How can this state of affairs be tolerated at the federal level where so much more money is involved? One DoD bureaucrat whistleblower (whose name now escapes me) has famously called the Pentagon/military-industrial-Congressional complex a "moral sewer" for very good reason, as the Cunningham corruption scandal makes clear.
COMMENT #38 [Permalink]
...
Bill_o_Carolina
said on 12/5/2005 @ 6:22 pm PT...
This thing will turn out to be enormous, if and that's a slim if, it's followed to where ever it leads.
COMMENT #39 [Permalink]
...
merifour
said on 12/5/2005 @ 6:35 pm PT...
I spent a hour or so at dailykos last night reading about this story, getting there from Cannonfire. So many posters had so much information. I was so struck with how much information was coming out from everyone...connecting dot after dot after dot. Yes, Kira, a 'community' working...it was great. Thanks all for their contributions here as well, more dots.
OT, but I have had trouble getting to this site for the last three days or so. I didn't think much about it until I read the above about Cannonfire being down. Thought is was my slow computer. Will pay more attention in the future. (K..am still working on the link stuff..did I ever have a mess the other day...lol. Will keep plugging along and someday just surprise you ) M4
COMMENT #40 [Permalink]
...
Bill_o_Carolina
said on 12/5/2005 @ 7:35 pm PT...
MZM's website is down now also!
I did a google search for MZM and Athena Innovative Systems was the first link at www.mzminc.com. The site is gone.
COMMENT #41 [Permalink]
...
Winter Patriot
said on 12/5/2005 @ 9:36 pm PT...
Blogspot.com is now happening again, Bush Out and all the others including Cannon Fire are now available. Hooray!
COMMENT #42 [Permalink]
...
Meow
said on 12/6/2005 @ 1:33 am PT...
Check out this little diddy, compliment of the wonderful gay spot at blogspot.com. Perhaps these little suites of bedrooms that Wilkes' company kept in washington is another little storefront.
From: http://www.washblade.com...editorial/cunningham.cfm
"Cunningham, who is married with grown children, has admitted to romantic, loving relationships with men, both during his Vietnam military service and as a civilian. That was the remarkable story that this publication reported two years ago, when Elizabeth Birch, the former Human Rights Campaign leader, inadvertently outed Cunningham at a gay rights forum.
Birch never mentioned Cunningham’s name, but she talked about a rabidly anti-gay congressman who asked to meet privately with her in the midst of a controversy over his use in a speech on the floor of the House the term “homos” to describe gays who have served in the military."
Also:
http://www.signonsandieg...051204/news_1n4adcs.html
http://hotlineblog.natio...5/12/dc_sex_scandal.html
COMMENT #43 [Permalink]
...
Meow
said on 12/6/2005 @ 1:39 am PT...
Sorry, this information^ from blogactive.com. A site by Gay activist Mike Rogers who blogs the truth about anti-gay politicians/political workers and their "gay" connection. Warning to all closeted gay people: If you support the Marriage Ammendment or any othter legislation to deny rights to Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgended U.S. citizens, you will be outed. We are watching and reporting the hypocrisy.
(Note to others and self) I am a terrible speller, but lately (oh, say the last month or two) I have been able to remember the exact spelling of hypocrisy. Interesting, I thought.
COMMENT #44 [Permalink]
...
kansasblue
said on 12/6/2005 @ 6:37 am PT...
Our lesson for today: make the conspriacy so big, so out of this world that no one will believe it.
COMMENT #45 [Permalink]
...
KestrelBrighteyes
said on 12/6/2005 @ 7:26 am PT...
Okay, bear with me, this is speculation on my part but it might be worth checking out.
The first thing I thought of when I read about the hospitality suites is "I wonder if Jeff Gannon/James Guckert is tied to this?" Might explain something about his easy access.
Another tangent - wasn't Duke Cunningham one of the closet gays that was outted a few years ago, for voting for anti-gay legislature?
Also, anybody remember the Franklin cover-up, about the boys being given midnight tours of the White House during Bush Sr's term?
I know it's a long shot, but something's ringing a bell in the peripheral on this for me - could there be a link?
What do y'all think - worth looking into?
COMMENT #46 [Permalink]
...
KestrelBrighteyes
said on 12/6/2005 @ 8:30 am PT...
I see now that some of my speculations were already covered in the above posts.
That's what I get for only skimming hurriedly.
Sorry y'all.
COMMENT #47 [Permalink]
...
Lena David
said on 12/6/2005 @ 9:03 am PT...
There has been so much corruption for so many years, it seems like a dream that honest investigations will be done.
I have just been re-reading some of the material on the Mena, Arkansas drug trafficking scandal and the connection with GHW Bush and Clinton and the murders to cover up the murders of the teenage boys who accidently came across the drug trafficking runway and the Senate stopping the investigations page had moved and Sarah McClelland's article on questions for Clinton about Mena disappeared.
Sarah is the one who reported the famous quote from Bush, Sr. that "if the American people knew what we had done to them, they would hang us from the nearest lamppost."
Wikipedia has a good article on Mena and there are many links, many do not work but outlines of the massive corruption in the coverup of Mena and Bush, Jr. while AWOL may have been one of the pilots doing the drug trafficking for his father who was being blackmailed by Barry Seal.
Wiki has a link to WHY IS GEORGE BUSH FLYING A PLANE THAT BELONGED TO DRUG RUNNER AND MURDERED WHISTLEBLOWER BARRY SEALE.
http://www.startinglinks...calewinsky/bodycount.htm
COMMENT #48 [Permalink]
...
Dredd
said on 12/6/2005 @ 10:39 am PT...
The subject matter scatter has happened again. I suggest a focus on the issue of DoD funneling of money within the US to political candidates which the DoD (read Rumsfeld) supports.
It is being done routinely and admittedly in Iraq in the illusionary effort to bring "democracy" there.
Why not here in the USA? We have evidence and admissions that it was done to purchase "good press" reports here ... why not laundering money for "good candidates" as well?
COMMENT #49 [Permalink]
...
We're Fk'd!
said on 12/6/2005 @ 10:42 am PT...
Every week another major story breaks and dies in blog world. How do we expand, when can we do a California style recall of all the departments in power to include the DOJ, and of course every immoral moron in this administration to include they're paid for news hound criminals...I mean associates (ha).
Don't we have one man rich enough (Stravos?) to buy a network and force the truth out?
COMMENT #50 [Permalink]
...
Dredd
said on 12/6/2005 @ 11:59 am PT...
CannonFire has updated (link here) the article somewhat.
Other news sources are adding tidbits that tend to confirm the hypothesis.
COMMENT #51 [Permalink]
...
Peg C
said on 12/6/2005 @ 2:37 pm PT...
Blogspot.com is doing some really strange things. Five minutes ago, I tried to access Cannonfire from my bookmark and was informed that was not authorized to access the site! Just now, I tried again and got in, no problem. Is someone playing games here?
COMMENT #52 [Permalink]
...
Robert Lockwood Mills
said on 12/6/2005 @ 4:31 pm PT...
I think it's dangerous to emphasize gay vs. straight issues in connection with political scandals.
Not that there isn't a possible connection between Cunningham and Gannon, or between Mehlmann and Gannon, or McClellan and Gannon, or Mehlmann and Cunningham, or any of them and some unknown gay hooker. But it's a slippery slope.
Cunningham was caught with $2.4 million in bribes. He's out of there, thank God. The bribes were the crime...if he's gay, does that make them worse? Unless someone's sexuality ties directly to specific, provable wrongdoing via blackmail or political favors done for gay lovers (as with McGreevey in New Jersey), I urge everyone to ignore it.
COMMENT #53 [Permalink]
...
KestrelBrighteyes
said on 12/7/2005 @ 6:33 am PT...
Robert re: #53 - I agree, it doesn't matter who's gay and who's straight in this, and bribery IS the crime that uncovered this. HOWEVER, if money earmarked for defense is being used to provide "hospitality suites", I start to wonder WHO is doing the entertaining. At the moment, the only WELL KNOWN hooker with friends in the White House is Jeff Gannon.
My speculations had more to do with a fake DOD company paying to provide those "hospitality suites". The possible link with Gannon was more wondering out loud about whether that might have something to do with how he went from being a hooker with an online porn site to having a fake news agency created for him, giving him a pretty much permanent "day pass" in the press corps, and being allowed to spend so many nights in the White House.
The fact that Cunningham and some other Congressmen aren't OPENLY gay, and vote for anti-gay legislature, might also make them an easier target for blackmail.
Like I said, pure thinking out loud on my part - but then every discovery starts with a "what if"
COMMENT #54 [Permalink]
...
Dredd
said on 12/7/2005 @ 6:38 am PT...
MMIIXX posted a link on another thread, which has some information in it that quotes Cannon and also adds some relevant data.
Here is an interesting quote from that link:
Did U.S. intelligence agencies assist in funneling rivers of cash from suspect defense contractors into the campaign coffers of pro-war Republican lawmakers? (link here).
COMMENT #55 [Permalink]
...
KestrelBrighteyes
said on 12/7/2005 @ 6:42 am PT...
Besides, if there are blowjobs involved, we might finally be able to get attention of mainstream media and start impeaching people.
COMMENT #56 [Permalink]
...
Kira
said on 12/7/2005 @ 10:11 am PT...
I dunno --- I think they're only upset by blowjobs for Democrats.
COMMENT #57 [Permalink]
...
czaragorn
said on 12/7/2005 @ 11:43 am PT...
KBE - Love means never having to say you're sorry - I'm sure you've already gathered that tidbit of wisdom - and you're extremely well loved around here. So enough of the apologies. Please keep sniffing around this intriguing mess. There must be some way to trace White House KY purchases through some FOIA request to the GAO or other. The only point is to catch them demonstrably lying about something, anything! Then the Clinton Massacree doctrine comes into effect. In re #57, could it possibly be that the repugs aren't getting any? Just wondering...
COMMENT #58 [Permalink]
...
KestrelBrighteyes
said on 12/7/2005 @ 3:52 pm PT...
Kira re #57 - Considering how much attention was given to the Gannon/Guckert thingie when it first came to light, I'd say that's a pretty sure bet.
Czaragorn re #58 - Awwwwww...grinning and scuffing my toe in the dirt here...you're sweet. You made my day, thanks
But catching the neo-cons lying doesn't seem to work either, they just wiggle their way out of it, every time so far anyway.
But wouldn't we just LOVE it if a photocopy of a receipt from "Fetishes R Us" or "Long Dong's House of Latex" turned up in that FOIA request? *L*
Oh I need to settle, I've had WAAAAY too much caffiene today....
Sorry Brad. I'll be shutting up now.
COMMENT #59 [Permalink]
...
Kira
said on 12/8/2005 @ 12:09 pm PT...
Too funny, Kes! Don't shut up! I needed that laff!!!
COMMENT #60 [Permalink]
...
martha
said on 12/8/2005 @ 2:08 pm PT...
#46..comment. Could there be a link to this administration , so many in power who are gay? Michael Brown is married. Hellooooo Blackmail. I can trust you if I can blackmail you. Rise to power in the republican administration. Just think of how many men in this administration are married but so feminine that most anybody could pick up on it. Re. Joseph Cannon's piece about DOD looting of U.S. Google just how much they have lost since Bush has been in office. Not counting the money "lost" in Iraq. Billions. Brad, I give you cause and effect for Diebold/