Good Job Buckhead From the RBKA and inhabitants of the Undead Thread in the smoky back room
Posted on 09/18/2004 8:51:41 PM PDT by kristinn
An Atlanta lawyer, Harry W. MacDougald, has become a key figure in the controversy over whether CBS News relied on forged documents to question President Bush's service in the National Guard.
Writing under the nickname "Buckhead" in a posting on FreeRepublic.com, a conservative Web site, MacDougald was the first to question the authenticity of documents, purportedly written in 1972, because the proportionally spaced fonts used in the memos were not used in typewriters at that time.
"I am saying these documents are forgeries, run through a copier for 15 generations to make them look old," he wrote in a message posted less than four hours after the Sept. 8 broadcast of "60 Minutes II" in which the documents were revealed.
Overnight, "Buckhead" became an Internet hero to conservatives as his five-paragraph posting touched off a cascade of questions about the documents. One suggested he be named "Freeper of the Year," using the name FreeRepublic posters call themselves.
On Democratic blogs, meanwhile, questions were being raised about how "Buckhead" could have analyzed the typefaces so quickly, and whether the questionable documents could have been a Republican plant.
MacDougald, 46, confirmed he was "Buckhead" after the Los Angeles Times traced his identity through biographical hints posted on the Web site. He declined to comment further to the Journal-Constitution or to the Los Angeles Times.
MacDougald serves on the advisory board of the Southeastern Legal Foundation, a conservative advocacy group, and as a sole practitioner was involved in two of the foundation's high-profile cases: a challenge to the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform bill, and the Arkansas disbarment proceedings against former President Bill Clinton.
He also wrote an amicus brief for FreeRepublic.com in a breach of copyright case brought against the Web site by the Los Angeles Times and The Washington Post.
Phil Kent, a former president of the foundation, said he was "tickled" to learn of MacDougald's involvement.
"He's always been kind of an Internet watchdog," Kent said. "Harry's a jack-of-all trades. He's very aware of a lot of things most of us wouldn't pick up on."
Former Atlanta City Councilman Lee Morris, who was deposed by MacDougald as a friendly witness in one of several whistle-blower cases he successfully litigated against the city, described him as a "meticulous" attorney, who "seemed like he was fired up for the right reasons."
Former Atlanta Journal-Constitution columnist Colin Campbell, who interviewed him several times about the whistle-blower cases, said MacDougald struck him both as "a man of integrity" and "someone who loves to stir the pot."
While several associates referred to MacDougald as a prodigious researcher, none knew of any experience he has had in identifying forged documents.
MacDougald works for Womble, Carlyle Sandridge & Rice, a North Carolina-based firm that opened its Atlanta branch in 1993. He's a graduate of Brown University and the University of Georgia Law School.
He's also a member of the Atlanta chapter of the Federalist Society, a conservative legal group from which a number of the Bush administration's federal judicial nominees have been drawn.
The memos reported on by CBS were allegedly written by Bush's Texas Air National Guard commander, Lt. Col. Jerry Killian, suggesting that Bush had received preferential treatment and failed to show up for a required physical.
The Washington Post reported Saturday that Bill Burkett, the former Guard officer suspected of providing the documents to CBS, contacted former Sen. Max Cleland (D-Ga.) in August to offer the same information to Sen. John Kerry's campaign. Cleland confirmed that he told Burkett in a brief phone conversation to contact others in the campaign.
Burkett wrote in a Web posting that the Kerry campaign didn't call him back. The Post also pointed out several words and phrases that were repeated in the alleged Killian documents and in Web postings made recently by Burkett.
In addition to the speed with which the typeface discrepancies were pointed out, Democrats have questioned the immediate release of copies of the documents by the White House, which had obtained them from CBS.
As more information filtered out, "Buckhead" became more cautious than he was in his initial post.
Congratulations were "premature," he replied to one admirer on Sept. 9, saying his conjecture was "not 100% conclusive because the IBM Executive and IBM Selectric Composer would do proportional fonts."
Later in the day, "Buckhead" wrote to another poster that he felt additional information was confirming his suspicions.
"As for my part, this tsunami would, without any doubt whatsoever, have happened w/o me, so it ain't no big thang," he wrote.
"I will have a cold one tonight, though."
Thank you! As manager of a Graphic Design department for years, I can tell you the forgeries were quickly met with hysterical laughter by staff.
I didn't think it was nice...it sounded like a hit piece to me. Notice all the "conservative" this and "conservative" that?
I'm surprised they didn't report, "he shops at a conservative grocery store". It's obvious they were planting the seeds of "he's a partisan" ala Dan Rather.
Shameless and disgusting but not unexpected from these worthless human beings that don't deserve to breath air.
We're very proud to be in the same group as Buckhead.
Yes, this post will go high, I hope. This is a big deal. When Rather steps down, Buckhead will be enshrined forever (not that he isn't under consideration now!)
It was so cool when Bill Handel (AM drive time in Los Angeles and very influential) talked about what BuckHead hath wrought.
That's the funny thing about our society. If it had turned out to be Joe Trailer Park (which it could have been) they would have destroyed the poor person. Go figure? I think it says something sad about our society.
Tonight on PBS, a representative for the LA Times praised bloggers as good fact checkers. No mention of Buckhead by name.
Scarborough just linked Dan Rather to the other biggest liars in television history-- Bill Clinton "I did not have...with that woman", O.J.Simpson, Richard Nixon "I am not a crook", GHWB "no new taxes", and Hillary Rodham's "vast right wing conspiracy"
A fine legacy for Gunga Dan.
What do you make of this Howlin?
From LGF, posted by
Adie 9-20-2004
http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=12729_DNC_Still_Quotes_Forged_Memos#c0031
"23 scotsilv, I hear you but one of the memo files I checked had an internal Acrobat file creation date of 2/6/04[2/6/2004]. If anyone's going to check for computer sales/returns, check February and look for an HP PrecisionPro Scanner sale. I still believe the whole fax claim is bogus.
We only know that happened based on forged documents. They could have pasted in a fax header as easily as those signatures. The only thing that makes me think it is possible the memos were on paper at some point is the rumpled page marks someone found by boosting the grays. However, that too could have been stripped in.
They used Illustrator 6.66 to create the PDF I have which contains all four memos. Nobody uses that except computer graphics experts in my experience. Maybe that's standard at CBS, but I'm suspicious of the entire process. What they say happened is not real. That's the only thing I'm sure of.
Look beyond Burkett... he's too easy."
February 11, 2004
Kevin Drum conducts two hour phone interview with Bill Burkett
February 12, 2004
Summarizes interview next day on his web site: http://calpundit.com/archives/003249.html
Burkett: "Those documents were performance, what I term performance documents, which would include retirement points, [unintelligible] type documents, which would be a record of drill performance or nonperformance, and there was at least one pay document copy within the top six to eight pages of that stack that was in the trash…."
Drum: "In addition to George Conn, Burkett says he talked about this to four other people: Harvey Gough, Dennis Adams, and two unnamed friends."
In his responses Burkett mentions Gough, Gen. Wes Clark, Jim Francis, Gov. Bush, Jim Moore, Dennis Adams, Col. Goodwin, Dan Bartlett, Allbaugh.
Good Job Buckhead From the RBKA and inhabitants of the Undead Thread in the smoky back room
Wow!
BUCKHEAD RULES!!!
Three cheers for Buckhead!
Re-bump back to the top!!!!
USHA Artillery!
Excellent work Buckhead.
Grab a cold drink, kick back, and take comfort in FReeping well done.
Scott, thanks for the ping!
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.