Posted on 01/17/2005 3:27:11 PM PST by swilhelm73
THE CBS REPORT issued last week by Richard Thornburgh and Louis Boccardi left a number of interesting questions unanswered. The Internet in general and the blogosphere in particular are a means of harnessing open-source information. So we'd like to invite the blogosphere to help answer some of the questions Thornburgh and Boccardi left dangling.
(1) Who is Michael Smith? The report identifies him only as a "journalist" in Texas. The panel does not appear to have spoken with Smith and tells us nothing of his previous work. Does he or did he work for a mainstream newspaper? A local television station? Does he write for a website or run a blog? Has he been involved in politics? As the man who led Mary Mapes to Bill Burkett, Smith is someone we need to know more about. How do we reach him?
(2) Who is George Conn? When Burkett first spoke with CBS, he claimed that his friend Chief Warrant Officer George Conn was the source of the documents ostensibly damaging to President Bush, but that Conn would not confirm this if pressed. Only later did Burkett change his story. The panel attempted to contact Conn on two occasions--they left two phone messages for him--but otherwise failed to look into his identity and determine what role, if any, he played.
(3) Who is Lucy Ramirez? The last time he spoke publicly, Bill Burkett claimed that he had been contacted by a woman named Lucy Ramirez, who told him about the Texas Air National Guard memos from 1972 and arranged to get them to Burkett. Is "Lucy Ramirez," like Burkett, an activist or blogger in the Texas area who has made something of a hobby of opposing George W. Bush? Does this woman even exist?
(4) How many copies of the forged documents did CBS have? The documents CBS showed on the original 60 Minutes Wednesday segment appeared to have been crumpled, while those reproduced in the Thornburgh-Boccardi report appear uncrumpled.
(5) Aside from the phone call between Mapes and Joe Lockhart, do we have reason to believe there were any contacts between CBS News employees and the Kerry campaign? The Thornburgh-Boccardi report does not even mention the "Fortunate Son" DNC advertising campaign which was launched the day after the CBS story aired.
(6) Who, or what, prompted Ben Barnes, the former lieutenant governor of Texas who says he recommended special treatment for Bush in the TexANG, to go on camera after all these years? It's been reported that Mary Beth Cahill called Barnes to congratulate him after 60 Minutes Wednesday aired. Do we have reason to believe there were earlier contacts?
If you have any relevant information, email it to webeditor@weeklystandard.com, with the subject header "CBS."
--The Editors
Hey, maybe 60 MINUTES will look into these questions some day. You know they like to uncover corruption and scandal.
I'd also like to know why everyone is calling the investigation is independent. Given that CBS has used Thornburg's law firm for quite some time before the investigation, it's a major conflict of interest.
I think they are using the wrong bait. When dealing with large quanities of manure in pile it is best to spread it where it is needed most not around people, but out in the field where it does the most good.
"(5) Aside from the phone call between Mapes and Joe Lockhart, do we have reason to believe there were any contacts between CBS News employees and the Kerry campaign? The Thornburgh-Boccardi report does not even mention the "Fortunate Son" DNC advertising campaign which was launched the day after the CBS story aired."
This is the part of the story that gets the least interest but would seem to be the most important. Did John Kerry's campaign conspire with CBS?
The known collusion with the Kerry campaign and the coincidence of the timing of "Fortunate Son" should have been all it took to lauch an investigation. Not by CBS, but by the FEC, various Congressional and Senatorial Committees, and the Justice Dept.
Interestingly, that is an area that could lead to a criminal investigation by the FEC violations.
Interestingly, that is an area that could lead to a criminal investigation by the FEC...
"Hey, maybe 60 MINUTES will look into these questions some day. You know they like to uncover corruption and scandal."
I can hear it now. "We called 60 minutes, but we refused to interview."
"The Thornburgh-Boccardi report does not even mention the "Fortunate Son" DNC advertising campaign which was launched the day after the CBS story aired."
I agree with the theory that the "Fortunate Son" campaign was timed with the 60 Minutes story AND the Kitty Kelly book. The Kelly book accused GWB with using cocaine - the 60 Minutes story then charged that he refused to take a flight physical. The public was supposed to conclude that the reason GWB didn't take the physical was due to cocaine use. The timing and coordination between these events was no accident.
Of course. Whether there was a meeting or not, I can't be sure - but it's certain as taxes that liberal politicians take their marching orders from liberal (there's no other kind) journalists.If the journalists don't like a subject, Democratic politicians drop it like a hot potato - because the idea around which liberalism coheres is that NOTHING actually matters but PR.
Lucy Ramirez and Mary Mapes are the same person. Trust me.
Where is the FEC in all this? What are they getting paid for? Oh that's right, they are paid to enforce the termination of the First Amendment.
I'm a big mystery fan and this is as good as it gets.
Bush camp cries foul
From John Mercurio
CNN Political Unit
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- John Kerry has hired an Internet-savvy Democrat to run his presidential campaign's online communications, a move that raises new questions about the link between his campaign and the independent groups that run TV ads on his behalf.
Zach Exley, the director of special projects for the MoveOn PAC, is going to the Kerry campaign to become its director of online communications and organization. Campaign Won't Fire MoveOn Staffer Exley also worked during the Democratic presidential primary for Howard Dean, helping Dean set up his web-based organization.
Since Kerry became the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee in early March, the MoveOn PAC has spent more than $2.5 million on TV ads that attack President Bush.
But under the new campaign-finance law, those efforts cannot be coordinated with the Kerry campaign.
A MoveOn statement said Exley and the staff of all MoveOn entities have agreed that they will not be in contact through the election period to avoid the appearance of coordination, "even though federal election rules permit some forms of communication."
MoveOn has spent roughly $17 million on ads since it started running its "misleader" campaign against Bush last year.
Republicans said Exley's move reinforces their accusations that Kerry and his Democratic allies are circumventing the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law they fought so hard to enact. (GOP challenges anti-Bush ads)
"It's another example of the coordination between MoveOn.org and the Kerry campaign that is illegal under campaign finance law," a Bush campaign official said.
"The Media Fund and MoveOn are functioning as Kerry's slush fund,a shadow Democratic Party that's illegally using soft dollars."
MoveOn became the subject of controversy early this year when it posted two ads on its Web site that compared Bush to Adolf Hitler. The ads were submitted to the group as part of a contest to produce anti-Bush commercials, and Republican Chairman Ed Gillespie said Exley dismissed Republican complaints about them with a barnyard expletive.
"In addition to the obvious questions his hiring raises about further illegal coordination between the Kerry campaign and MoveOn.org, you have to wonder what hiring someone who considers Hitler comparisons to be legitimate political discourse says about the Kerry campaign," Gillespie said in a statement issued Wednesday.
Find this article at:
http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/04/07/kerry.exley
Campaign Won't Fire MoveOn Staffer
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1196779/posts
NewsMax .com ^ | 8/22/04 | Carl Limbacher
The Kerry campaign is gloating this weekend over the resignation of Bush Cheney volunteer, former Vietnam War POW Ken Cordier, who's featured in the latest Swiftboat ad - saying it proves illegal coordination between the Swiftvets' 527 group and the official Bush campaign.
But Kerry has no plans to fire Zach Exley, a key campaign staffer who served as the organizing director for MoveOn.org throughout the presidential primaries. What's more, MoveOn, whose sole mission is to defeat President Bush in November, maintains that Exley is allowed to "communicate" with the 527 group even as he works for the Democratic nominee.
Can we keep this BTTP so's we can get all possible Freepers to see this?
This is a 'paradigm' invitation - It was here that the fraud was uncovered and it brought FR and Bloggers into the open...The dummies worst nightmare.
Now if y'all can grab this ball and run with it, it may be that horseshoe nail that can win the war.
We have seen that the enemy, and CBS is in the vanguard - as demonstrated with the diatribe by Kennedy in a solo rant - is not going to even slow down, now that they have gotten past the wrist slap from the "investigation."
But the whitewash report still has enough material in it to run with, regarding the felony of trying to take down a sitting president in the midst of an election - with documents they knew were fraudulent, with contact and sharing information with the sKerry campaign, etc.
Now there's names to be tracked down...etc.
At the same time, we must bombard our reps in DC and let them know we have not forgotten, we do not expect this to be pushed aside, we expect a congressional hearing, we expect a grand jury investigation. etc.
We have to make a lot of noise.
It's time we pubs stopped just shrugging and walking away. That makes us just as guilty because that is what emboldens the dummies, year after year, to commit such blatant, in-your-face acts, ever more illegal.
They must be brought to the mat, pay individually for their acts, or they will only continue to take down our people, one by one, like shooting fish in a barrel.
(an aside: sometimes I wonder why our repub. congressmen/women, Senators, etc, are such wimps when it comes to holding the dummies feet to the fire. I wonder, sometimes, about all those individual files that Hilliary, illegally (another ho hum, oh well, move on,) had from the FBI at (in boxes at the White House) ---did she gather information that would serve as blackmail on many of our reps? What else would she want them for? Is this what keeps so many of our repub reps from standing ground and causes them to turn away from outrageous and illegal doings on the other side? Just wonder, sometimes)
Powerline Blog thread about the Weekly Standard story here:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1323088/posts?page=1
See post #19.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
