The Fact-Checker, by Michael Dobbs

Who gives a crap?

Thanks for the info. I just wanted to know if you are an American citizen though. If it helps, I all go first: Yes, I am.

Not even one Pinocchio? What about an intern hang man icon?

And is the other Dobbs as good at cleverly misusing a news resource to promote his own book?

Oh lighten up people, I thought it was an amusing change from all the usual stuff. Have a chuckle, you'll feel better!

For uncensored news please bookmark:

www.wsws.org
www.globalresearch.ca
www.onlinejournal.com
www.takingaimradio.com
otherside123.blogspot.com

http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_3324.shtml

GOP contender linked to attorney firing
By Jason Leopold
Online Journal Contributing Writer

Though virtually unknown outside the Albuquerque area, Bernalillo County Sheriff Darren White is betting that his conservative credentials and close ties to the White House will help Republicans retain the hotly contested New Mexico congressional seat being vacated by Rep. Heather Wilson.

Wilson, in turn, is campaigning hard for the Senate seat that Republican Pete Domenici has held for 36 years in a race that could go a long way toward determining whether Democrats expand their narrow control of the U.S. Senate

But all three of these Republicans -- Domenici, Wilson and White -- have something else in common: They all were implicated in the firing of New Mexico's U.S. Attorney David Iglesias as part of the White House-driven federal prosecutor purge in 2006.

Wilson is currently the subject of a preliminary House ethics probe related to a phone call she placed to Iglesias just a few weeks before the 2006 midterm elections, inquiring about the status of an indictment against a prominent Democrat in the state.

Domenici was the subject of a similar probe in the Senate over a call he made to Iglesias about the timing of indictments, a call that the Senate Ethics Committee said created an "appearance of impropriety" in a formal admonishment of the six-term senator.

Sheriff White also reportedly was pushing Iglesias to crack down on Democratic-backed voter registration drives and then took his complaints about Iglesias's lack of aggressiveness to Washington.

In a little noticed article in the Albuquerque Journal at the height of the U.S. attorney scandal, White said he was upset with Iglesias's inaction against Democratic-backed voter registration drives and other criminal issues.

White, who was New Mexico chairman of the Bush-Cheney 2004 campaign, confirmed that in spring 2006, he took his "complaints directly to the Department of Justice where he met with Attorney General [Alberto] Gonzales' chief of staff, Kyle Sampson and others," the Albuquerque Journal reported on April 15, 2007.

Sampson was chief of staff to Attorney General Gonzales and helped create the list of U.S. attorneys selected for dismissal, prosecutors who in Sampson's phrase were not "loyal Bushies."

Trip to Washington

According to interviews with several law enforcement officials in Bernalillo County and a review of documents, White traveled to Washington with two other Republican operatives in 2006 to complain to the Justice Department that Iglesias was balking at bringing criminal charges against what they called rampant voter fraud -- and that he should be fired.

Law enforcement officials said White was accompanied by Mickey Barnett, a Republican lobbyist, and Pat Rogers, a Republican attorney, both of whom are based in New Mexico.

Rogers was affiliated with the American Center for Voting Rights, a now defunct non-profit organization that sought to defend voter rights and increase public confidence in the fairness and outcome of elections.

However, it has since emerged that the organization played a major role in suppressing the votes of people who intended to cast ballots for Democrats in various states.

Rogers is also the former chief counsel to the New Mexico Republican Party, and has been recommended by Domenici to replace Iglesias as U.S. Attorney for New Mexico.

Barnett, Rogers and White reportedly met with Monica Goodling, the Justice Department's White House liaison who resigned last year for the role she played in the unusual firing of nine U.S. attorneys in the middle of a president's term.

Last May, House Democrats released a transcript of an interview between congressional investigators and senior Justice Department official Matthew Friedrich. He said that over breakfast in November 2006, Rogers and Barnett expressed frustration with Iglesias's refusal to pursue voter fraud cases and that they had spoken to Karl Rove and Domenici about getting Iglesias fired.

"I remember them repeating basically what they had said before in terms of unhappiness with Dave Iglesias and the fact that this case hadn't gone anyplace," said Friedrich, who last week was named to head the Justice Department's Criminal Division.

"It was clear to me that they did not want him to be the U.S. attorney and they mentioned that they had essentially . . . they were sort of working towards that."

'Slick move'

Iglesias also had been hearing rumors in New Mexico political circles that White was the "third man" who personally complained to Justice Department officials that he was not pursuing voter fraud cases aggressively enough.

"I was advised by Republican insiders that Darren viewed me as competition for future elected office," Iglesias said in an interview.

"So it was a slick move on his part to try to get me removed for 'performance' knowing that that stigma would diminish my future electability. The irony is that he could have called me and asked if I was considering running for Heather Wilson's seat. I would have said no."

Iglesias said White also pressed him to prosecute voter fraud cases during the 2004 election. In the months before the general election, Iglesias said White showed up at the county clerk's office demanding to know if there were any questionable voter registrations on file.

Mary Herrera, the Bernalillo County clerk, told White that there were about 3,000 or so forms that were either incomplete or incorrectly filled out.

Bernalillo County had been the target of a massive grassroots effort by the group Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) to register voters, which paid off with about 65,000 newly registered voters.

Sheriff White intended to challenge the integrity of some of the names on the voter registration rolls, Iglesias wrote in a new book, In Justice: Inside the Scandal that Rocked the Bush Administration.

White seized upon the registration forms as evidence that ACORN submitted fraudulent registration forms. He held a press conference along with other Republican officials in the county to call attention to the matter.

Iglesias said he established an election fraud task force in September 2004 and spent more than two months probing claims of widespread voter fraud in his state.

"After examining the evidence, and in conjunction with the Justice Department Election Crimes Unit and the FBI, I could not find any cases I could prosecute beyond a reasonable doubt," Iglesias said. "Accordingly, I did not authorize any voter fraud related prosecutions."

Iglesias said he views White's participation in his firing as an inappropriate attempt by a law enforcement officer to pressure a prosecutor.

"I question his judgment is attempting to remove a U.S. attorney who did not find any cases worth prosecuting related to voter fraud," Iglesias said. "That shows a spectacular lack of understanding of how law enforcement works.

"Cops complain all the time that prosecutors don't take their cases, but it's incredibly rare for the cop to seek the removal of the prosecutor. But he was that highly politicized."

White's campaign refused to respond to questions about the sheriff's role in Iglesias's firing. Contacted at the Bernalillo County Sheriff's station, White declined to comment for this story.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has launched an ad campaign against White that cites his role in Iglesias's firing.

"A federal prosecutor was fired only after he refused to bend to political pressure Darren White helped orchestrate," said Yoni Cohen, Western Regional Press Secretary for the DCCC. "If he were in Congress, White would likely be under investigation for violating ethical standards . . .

"Senator Domenici is paying the price for listening to Darren White -- he was punished by the Ethics Committee. The people of New Mexico deserve better than another Republican Member of Congress who believes playing politics is more important than playing by the rules and honoring America's system of checks and balances."
Jason Leopold is the author of "News Junkie," a memoir. Visit www.newsjunkiebook.com for a preview. His new website is The Public Record.

Who gives a crap?

posted by someone too ashamed to give his real name....

I give a crap. I find this amusing. It's a nice little tidbit is all - whoever you are, you might have forgot to take your prozac today.

Who gives a crap?

posted by someone too ashamed to give his real name....

I give a crap. I find this amusing. It's a nice little tidbit is all - whoever you are, you might have forgot to take your prozac today.

I might have married the wrong person! Oops.....I thought I was marrying Michael Dobbs! Now, which one....????

The Winston churchill you know had a distant American cousin witht e same name who also wrote. They agreed at one point to add "the Ameerican" and "the Englishman" to their bylines on books.

Left out how long he has been a Clinton hater. Right. It's been a long time.Nicwe to have a biased fact checker. Kinda like letting the fox guard the hen house. Did he pick himself as fact checker? Probably?

And these poll results say everything. You Won't Believe these Results!

http://www.votenic.com

This was very interesting. Those few who doubt its keen relevance to fact checking miss that, in each instance of confusion described by Mr. Dobbs, someone has failed to check the name against the reality.

Names aren't true or false. They're real or fake. They add another dimension to fact checking the truth that is no less important.

eo07ai5xmoruj8 http://www.267182.com/647132.html > nxnkgj7sf57fi9 [URL=http://www.548372.com/941706.html] nmd5fq19zeeztmdrk [/URL] qf9ixx3clo9dh4

thank you, michael, this is the nicest thing you've ever done -- now we will all remember the name of the writer of the fascinating House of Cards -- which was one of the most brilliant, compelling, nearly believable political thrillers I have ever seen on television. Splendid acting, fast action alternating with slow build-ups that allowed the viewer to see ahead with horror what was going to happen to our heroine and our hero (To Play the King - finale), and scenes of London that made you feel you were there. Anyone who is fascinated by British politics should try to find a way to see that series.

In Washington Post (Yellow Journal, First Class) of October 27, 1995; Volume 115, Number 52. page 2:
One Michael Dobbs, with Christine Spolar, wrote a "thinly sourced" Srebrenica piece virtually cloning one by David Rohde and words of Madeleine ("Bill tells the truth about Lewinski") Albright. (Fake story about satellite photos and disproved massacre in a stadium.) Funny thing, the alleged massacre happened months earlier, in July 1995. NO reports about the atrocity appeared anywhere until September 1995, on the eve of a US attack (Tonkin Gulf, anyone?). Must have been kept secret. Another funnny thing: Zbig "Stinger Missiles for Osama's Freedom Fighters" Brzezinski hadn't heard about any massacre as of his OpEd piece published in the 7 August 1995 New Republic, page 20, weeks after the fall of Srebrenica and the safe arrival in Tuzla of 3000 Muslim fighters who safely "slipped through" Serb lines (Chris Hedges NYT, July 18, 1995. As deftly as Hillary they ducked that hail of Serb bullets. --Watch this space for anniversary re-runs of the Srebrenica epic.

Republican John McCain (Bush III) is a weak candidate, but that does not give him the excuse to publicly insult his wife who is a recovering drug addict.

In 1989, Cindy McCain became addicted to opioid painkillers such as Percocet and Vicodin, which she initially took to alleviate pain following two spinal surgeries for ruptured discs and to ease emotional stress during the Keating Five scandal, which involved her as a bookkeeper who had difficulty finding receipts.

The addiction progressed to where she resorted to stealing drugs from her own AVMT. During 1992, Tom Gosinski, the director of government and international affairs for AVMT, discovered her drug theft.

Subsequently in 1992, her parents staged an intervention to force her to get help; she told her husband about her problem, attended a drug treatment facility, began outpatient sessions, and ended her three years of active addiction.

In January 1993, McCain terminated Gosinski's employment on grounds of budgetary reasons. In spring 1993, Gosinski tipped off the Drug Enforcement Administration to investigate McCain's drug theft, and a federal investigation ensued.

McCain's defense team, led by Washington lawyer John Dowd, secured an agreement with the U.S. Attorney's office that limited her punishment to financial restitution and enrollment in a diversion program, without any public disclosure.

Meanwhile, in early 1994 Gosinski filed a wrongful termination lawsuit against McCain, which he told her he would settle for $250,000. In April 1994, Dowd requested that Maricopa County officials investigate Gosinski for extortion. The Phoenix New Times was about to publish a negatively-cast article about the whole affair.

Cindy McCain pre-empted this by publicly revealing her past addiction, stating she hoped it would give fellow drug addicts courage in their struggles: "Although my conduct did not result in compromising any missions of AVMT, my actions were wrong, and I regret them."

A flurry of press attention followed, including charges by Gosinski that she had asked him to lie concerning her drug use when the McCains were applying to adopt their baby from Bangladesh and statements by past AVMT employees that Gosinski had once threatened to blackmail her.

The Arizona Republic published an editorial cartoon ridiculing the motivations for her AVMT work and an award dinner in her honor was canceled citing poor ticket sales. In the end, both Gosinski's lawsuit and the extortion investigation against him were dropped.

AVMT concluded its activities in 1995. That year, McCain founded a new organization, the Hensley Family Foundation, which donates monies towards children's programs in Arizona and nationally, and she was largely a stay-at-home mom during the balance of the 1990s. She also held positions as vice president, director, and vice chair of Hensley & Co.