DebateGate

When Does the Kathleen Willey Book Tour Media Blitz Begin?

In the past six years, any time someone wrote a tell-all book about George W. Bush or a member of his administration, they were given the royal treatment by the press with lavish interviews offering them the perfect platform to market their work as well as their politically charged opinions.

Consider for example all the attention given to Valerie Plame Wilson just recently when her book "Fair Game" was released, or the focus on George Tenet and his "At the Center of the Storm" expos? back in April.

With this in mind, if a former female White House aide published a new book implicating a former president -- whose wife just so happens to be the frontrunner for the Democrat presidential nomination in 2008 -- in rape and other possible crimes, shouldn't she be welcomed with open arms by evening television magazines like "60 Minutes" and morning shows like "Today?"

After all, given Kathleen Willey's shocking statements about her new book "Target: Caught in the Crosshairs of Bill and Hillary Clinton" to WOR radio's Steve Malzberg Thursday, one would think such programs would be all over this like white on rice, assuming of course their goal was journalism and not political activism (audio in two parts available here and here, highlights of the interview follow):

***  Michael Radutzky, who was a producer for [CBS's] Ed Bradley, had come to me with another story about intimidation of a friend of mine by the [Clinton] White House, and once they - and that's the reason, that was the original reason that I did the "60 Minutes" story [in March 1998 about having been sexually assaulted in the Oval Office by former President Clinton]. Once I did that, and told that story, they asked me about the Oval Office incident, they made the entire "60 Minutes" story about that...They told me that a former friend of mine had been intimidated with a supposedly illegal adoption of her child. And this woman had - Julie Steele, I don't know if you remember that name...Well, this woman had just gone out, I mean she, we were friends of 20 years and the day after my name came out on the Drudge Report, she sold me out to the National Enquirer for $15,000 and just started trying to make money off of everything, and saying that I had lied, asked her to lie for me about what happened in the Oval Office. So, when I was told that the reason that this was all happening was because the pressure was being brought to bear on her by the White House supposedly about her quote-unquote illegal adoption of a child from Romania, I thought, well, that explains it all. That's why this friend of 20 years has done this. And, I am outraged because no mother should be threatened with having her child taken away from her. And that's the original reason I went on "60 Minutes."...That's what I was told...[by]...the producers at "60 Minutes" that were doing all the research...They said they had information that she had been intimidated, threatened.

***[Talking about the break-in at her home on August 31] They took the manuscript [of her book]. They made it look like, a, just a burglary. My purse was missing. They had tampered with my, my computer, my, enter, my satellite, my television satellite. And I didn't realize for a while that my purse was missing. It was just a day that I didn't go out. And, then I realized that the manuscript was gone, and I knew that, that, I knew immediately what had happened...I'm sure the, the Clinton operatives were behind it. I think they were sending me a message that they were watching me, that they, that they wanted to see what's in the, I think one of the things was to try to terrify me. One purpose of the break-in. The other was to see what was in the manuscript so that they could be ready for the release date.

***I'm afraid if Hillary wins, I mean, that's one of the reasons that I write the book is, that I've written this book is, you know, for one reason to reclaim my life and to reclaim the things that were taken from me back then - my reputation, my character - you know, the attacks were brutal. Yes, am I afraid of Hillary Clinton becoming president? Absolutely.

***[On Bill and Hillary back in the White House] It would hearken back to the old days of the Clinton White House. Business as usual. He would, he would be in there. It would be just like it was before. I worked there. It was like living in Animal House. No respect for the office, no respect for the White House. It was not a pleasant experience. And I think having, having been subjected to this terror campaign and the Clintons' secret police, I think we could be looking at that all over again. I mean, this is not what our Forefathers had in mind.

***[Talking about if she thought Juanita Broaddrick was raped by Bill Clinton] 100 percent...Not one single doubt. I know her. I've talked to her. She's a friend of mine. She has told me what happened. A woman understands these things, and I have seen the fear in her eyes, and I have seen the reaction when she talks about it. You don't make these things up.
Pretty powerful stuff, wouldn't you agree? The kind that "60 Minutes," the "Today" show, and "Good Morning America" - to name a few - would normally be all over, right?

Yet, though this book release has been highly anticipated, and came out Tuesday, only Fox News has even mentioned it.

That's right. Not only hasn't Willey been interviewed by ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, or MSNBC, not one of these networks has even mentioned her book.

Not one.

By contrast, when Valerie Plame Wilson's "Fair Game" was released last month, CNN did six stories on it, MSNBC did two, NBC also did two, and CBS's "60 Minutes" did an entire segment on it with Katie Couric doing the much-publicized interview.

When George Tenet's "At the Center of the Storm" came out in April, CNN did an astonishing 24 segments about it, CBS did five including a "60 Minutes" piece, NBC also did five, MSNBC did three, and ABC did one.

Liberal media bias? What liberal media bias?

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2007/11/09/when-does-kathleen-willey-book-tour-media-blitz-begin

Game over.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orxz2mPfB4U

Obama and the Flag

I never would have noticed, let alone cared, if Barack Obama had simply stopped wearing an American flag lapel pin. I'd never noticed that he was wearing one in the first place. But Obama chose to frame his decision to stop wearing the flag pin as some kind of political statement. So I think it is natural for people to wonder what, exactly, is the content of the political statement; to what group of voters is it intended to appeal; and what does it tell us about Obama as a candidate?

While I couldn't possibly care less whether a candidate wears a flag pin or not, there doesn't seem to be any plausible set of answers to these questions that casts much credit on Obama.

http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2007/10/018665.php

Siegelman, Scrushy Get Prison Terms

MONTGOMERY, Ala. ? Former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman, a Democrat, was sentenced to more than seven years in federal prison and former HealthSouth CEO Richard Scrushy got nearly seven years Thursday in a bribery and corruption case that the judge said damaged public trust in state government.

Supporters of both men had testified at their sentencing hearing, describing the positive impact they have had in Alabama during their careers, as attorneys pleaded with U.S. District Judge Mark Fuller to show mercy.

"While it is true the good far exceeds the bad, I must impose a fair punishment to reassure all that come before this court that justice is blind," Fuller said in sentencing Siegelman.

Both men were immediately taken into custody after the judge denied defense requests to let them remain free while they appeal.

The two once-prominent figures in politics and business were escorted out of the courtroom by U.S. marshals and were not allowed to talk to family members. Scrushy's family cried quietly in the courtroom. Siegelman's wife, Lori, left immediately.

Asked by reporters about her husband's sentence and being immediately taken into custody, she said, "I expected it." She got into her car without further comment.

Others in the shocked courtroom did not expect such sudden imprisonment.

"Being taken into custody immediately was completely unnecessary," said David McDonald, a Siegelman attorney.

Siegelman was fined $50,000 due immediately and ordered to pay $181,325 in restitution to a state agency where prosecutors said kickbacks were made. He is to perform 500 hours of community service when his sentence of seven years, four months is completed.

Scrushy was fined $150,000 due immediately, plus ordered to pay restitution of $267,000 to United Way of Central Alabama. He also was ordered to perform 500 hours of community service after serving six years and 10 months in prison.

Both are to be on supervised release for three years when their terms end.

Fuller had increased the possible sentence range for Siegelman to more than 15 years earlier Thursday and left Scrushy's possible range at eight to 10 years. But he was not bound by the guidelines. Prosecutors asked for 30 years for Siegelman and 25 for Scrushy, while the defense pleaded for probation for both.

Siegelman, 61, and Scrushy, 54, were convicted last year of bribery, conspiracy and mail fraud. The government accused Siegelman of naming Scrushy to a hospital regulatory board in exchange for $500,000 in donations to Siegelman's 1999 campaign for a state lottery for education. The defense contended there was no quid-pro-quo or personal benefit.

Siegelman also was convicted of obstruction of justice for trying to hide money given by a lobbyist for a motorcycle. The defense contends it was a legitimate transaction and not as depicted by prosecutors.

Chief prosecutor Louis Franklin said the sentence "sends a message that the prosecution of this case was a righteous prosecution."

A drawn-looking Leslie Scrushy briefly addressed reporters outside the courthouse, saying that her husband's salute as he was led from the courtroom said to her "that he loves me."

"I just want to go home and be with my babies and try to explain to them what has happened in America today," she said.

Prosecutor Joseph Fitzpatrick had urged Fuller to hand down a stiff punishment.

"It will send the message that if these people can be sent to prison, it certainly can happen to a local politician," he said during the hearing.

Siegelman wiped at tears as he asked the judge for mercy, apologizing to the people of Alabama but denying he took a bribe from Scrushy.

"Your honor, I am not a perfect person, but I am a good person. I have made mistakes. I have done some stupid things and some dumb things," he said. "Judge, you can decide whether I die in prison or go home to my family. Your honor, I ask you for mercy. I ask you to send me home."

Scrushy, who earlier introduced the judge to his nine children, motioned to them during his final statement.

"God has blessed me with this family. It does concern me greatly the effect on my family if I am placed in prison," Scrushy said.

Fitzpatrick, a prosecutor in the Alabama attorney general's office who has worked with the federal prosecution on the case, acknowledged that both Siegelman and Scrushy have done good things for the people of Alabama.

"But your honor, sometimes good men do bad things and sometimes bad men do good things," he said.

Earlier Thursday, Fuller signaled a prison term awaited both as he refused to reduce the guidelines and instead increased them.

"I am convinced the conduct Gov. Siegelman engaged in damaged the public's confidence in the government of this state," Fuller said.

Attorney Susan James told Fuller she is concerned about Siegelman's safety if he is given a lengthy sentence, pointing out that as a former Alabama attorney general and governor he has a history of pushing for tough anti-crime legislation and for fighting against parole for some prisoners. She said that at his age, "the rest of his productive life will be wasted while he's in prison."

But Franklin said Siegelman deserved a harsh sentence partly because of his tough stance against crime.

"To say that when someone takes a harsh stance and then turns around and commits a crime they should be given lenient punishment, that's the height of hypocrisy," Franklin told Fuller.

Siegelman was a state Democratic Party official in Birmingham when he was elected secretary of state in 1978. He soon became one of the state's most popular politicians, eventually serving as attorney general and lieutenant governor before being elected governor in 1998.

Scrushy founded a small health care company in Birmingham in the early 1980s that would grow into HealthSouth Corp., one of the nation's leaders in outpatient surgery and rehabilitative health care.

He was fired as a $1.7 billion accounting scandal was uncovered, but he was acquitted of criminal charges in the fraud by a federal court jury in Birmingham in 2005. Siegelman also had criminal charges against him dismissed after a federal judge in Birmingham struck down key evidence in an alleged Medicaid fraud case.

One of Siegelman's attorneys, Robert Blakey, gave Fuller a list of former governors of various states who have been convicted of crimes but given sentences lighter than what Siegelman would receive according to the guidelines.

The governors included former Louisiana Gov. Edwin Edwards, sentenced to 10 years in federal prison in a racketeering case, and former Alabama Gov. Guy Hunt, who received probation after being convicted in 1993 of spending money from a tax exempt inaugural fund for personal items.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/fn/4930645.html

Companies Follow Murtha?s Earmark Trail

In April 2004, Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) celebrated the groundbreaking for a gleaming new office building here, designed around its anchor tenant, a Rockville, Md.-based technology company called Aeptec Microsystems.

Murtha pursued millions of dollars worth of legislative earmarks for the company, and Aeptec?s federal contracts blossomed after it opened a branch in his district in 2001, rising from about $13 million in 2000 to $45.6 million in 2003 and $33 million in 2004, according to fedspending.org, a database of federal contracts. The company had been represented by two lobbying firms with close ties to Murtha: KSA Consulting and the PMA Group.

But Aeptec never moved into the Indiana building, which was built mostly with state and local development funds and remains mostly empty after opening last month. The company, also known as 3eTI, instead moved its staff of about 15 people into a nondescript office park across town, where its name is not even posted on the outside door. It has since been bought by Texas-based EFJ Inc.

Aeptec?s story is not unique. Murtha has obtained millions of dollars in earmarks for firms in his district, many of them clients of PMA and KSA. But in many cases the money is not for local companies, it is for companies that move to the district, and frequently it is for start-ups that essentially would not be in business were it not for Murtha?s largesse. Some of the firms also are simply store-front offices of companies that do most of their work elsewhere.

Murtha has almost ? but not quite ? single-handedly created a new economy in his district, with start-up companies getting Murtha earmarks, getting contracts from other companies that have gotten Murtha earmarks or getting trained on how to get government money by other institutions that have gotten Murtha earmarks.

A good guide to the patterns of Murtha?s largesse is the client list of KSA Consulting, a lobbying firm that employs a former Murtha staffer and used to employ Murtha?s brother, Kit Murtha.

News stories have highlighted KSA?s success in getting earmarks for its clients, but there is more to the story than that. KSA?s client list consists largely of small businesses that are either based in Johnstown, Pa., or have opened offices in Johnstown, plus a significant smattering of companies that no longer exist and may never have existed at all.

The pattern that appears dominant is that the companies? federal contract dollars expand shortly after they open an office in the 12th Congressional district ? though it is not entirely clear how much of their work is actually conducted in the district.

Kit Murtha, who says he retired from KSA a year ago, told Roll Call that he doesn?t believe there is any connection between the earmarks and the companies? move to the Johnstown area. ?You can?t really answer that ... which comes first, the chicken or the egg?? he said. KSA represents ?people that are in Johnstown, and some came to Johnstown, and which came first, and why, you can?t say.?

But KSA?s client list indicates a pattern. Applied Ordnance Technologies was a Maryland-based firm that signed up with KSA in 2001, opened a Johnstown office in 2004 and saw the value of its government contracts jump from $12 million in 2003 to $21 million in 2004 and $24 million in 2005.

Murtha?s office issued a press release declaring that ?Congressman Murtha helped to attract AOT to Johnstown.? Murtha said in the release, ?AOT represents the type of organization that is helping to revitalize our communities ? small, technology-based companies with potential to grow.?

Last year, contracting giant SAIC bought AOT, maintaining the Johnstown office with about a dozen employees.

Another KSA client, ChemImage, a Pittsburgh-based company that does specialized imaging for medical and defense applications, signed up with KSA in August 2001 and opened a Johnstown office in 2004. On its Web site, the company explains that, ?To maintain ongoing government relationships, ChemImage also retains an office in Johnstown, Pennsylvania.? A person answering the phone at the Johnstown office said there is a staff of three there, and about 45 people in the Pittsburgh office.

According to the FedSpending database, ChemImage had no government contracts before 2003, then gathered $12 million in contracts from 2003 to 2005.

Ken Stalder, the CEO of KSA, said there is no connection between the Johnstown location and the earmarks, and he does not urge his clients to move to Johnstown unless there is a good economic reason to do so.

?Johnstown is a phenomenal place to do business, for a number of reasons, including the plus of Mr. Murtha,? Stalder said. As chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee on Defense, Murtha has an extraordinary ability to steer federal dollars to specific projects. But Stalder points out that the work force in the area is relatively inexpensive, there are nearby universities training students in high-tech and defense-related programs, and major defense companies such as Lockheed Martin and Boeing have offices in the district that provide partnership opportunities for local businesses.

Stalder says his emphasis is less on lobbying and earmarks and more on helping companies develop an infrastructure that will make them capable of bidding on and winning government contracts.

?What I can do is ? I know how to get the money, how to position yourself to win a contract. And that is what I do well,? Stalder said. ?What happens is, you have people who have a good idea, and it?s all great and you can get enough contracts to keep a 10-person company going. But if you are ever going to move further, you?ve got to get official, and that?s what I do best.

?We use earmarks, legislative stuff ? that?s a tool we use to help build business,? Stalder said. ?But it wouldn?t be that?s the whole thing.?

Dealing mostly with small businesses, KSA?s client list has its share of mysteries. Lobbying disclosure forms the firm submitted to Congress in May ? several months past the statutory deadline ? listed two clients, Summit Technologies and VidiaFusion, that are no longer in business. Gary Carter, who ran Summit, and had a Johnstown office until last year, said KSA never represented his company. Roll Call could not locate VidiaFusion, though there appears to have been a company by that name in Florida at one time. Stalder said he thinks the company was bought and moved to New Hampshire, but acknowledged, ?We don?t represent VidiaFusion.?

KSA also filed a termination form for a company called Lindsey Energy in Norfolk, Va. The address reported by KSA matches the address of Harvey Lindsay Commercial Real Estate, but Lindsay told Roll Call he knows of no such firm and there is no Lindsey Energy in the building. Stalder had no recollection of the firm.

Stalder admits that his company has mishandled its disclosure forms ? ?That?s probably because we don?t know how to file them? ? but denies that his company has profited from its ties to Murtha.

?We?re a pretty easy target I guess, because of the Murtha connection,? he said, ?but no one ever picks up on the Young connection, or Lewis, who I get more support from ? I get more support out of other people than I do out of Mr. Murtha.? Bill Young (Fla.) and Jerry Lewis (Calif.) are top Republicans on the House Appropriations Committee.

But with Murtha?s assistance, some of Stalder?s companies have had tremendous success. For instance, former Lockheed employee Dave Herbener founded a company in 2003 called KDH Technologies to sew bulletproof vests. In April 2004, KDH signed a $2 million contract with the Navy to sew the vests ? though the company did not yet have a manufacturing facility.

Days before the contract was signed, The Tribune-Democrat in Johnstown reported that KDH was hoping to establish its manufacturing site in Johnstown, and added, ?Herbener said he came to Johnstown through the efforts of U.S. Rep. John P. Murtha.?

In 2005 the company opened its facility in a former garment factory in Johnstown, and has since opened a second site in Waynesburg, on the western edge of Murtha?s district. According to FedSpending, KDH received $2.8 million in contracts in 2004, $9.4 million in 2005 and at least $7.3 million in 2006. Herbener did not respond to several calls requesting comment.

Officials in the district say it is a mistake to look at the region?s economic progress simply as a factor of Murtha?s efforts, and emphasize the broad, coordinated push by local institutions to boost economic growth.

Indiana County Chamber of Commerce President Dana Henry said, ?I don?t ever remember getting a phone call from Jack Murtha saying ?I can help you.?? Henry said the county?s unemployment rate has dropped from as high at 15 percent seven years ago ? ?we were desperate for business? ? to about 4 percent today because of a broad, coordinated effort to attract business to the area and support start-up companies.

After the mines and mills that were the backbone of the local economy shut down, the region was left with ?a lot of guys in their basements doing things that are similar to what Bill Gates was doing in his garage,? Henry said, and local officials have cultivated this inventiveness.

The chamber partners with other local institutions ? particularly Indiana University of Pennsylvania and a regional economic development group called Johnstown Area Regional Industries, which trains businesses on how to get government contracts.

Rodney Ruddock, chairman of the Indiana County Commission, pointed out that local efforts are geared toward weaning these businesses off defense contracts and getting them to broaden into other work that is more sustainable. ?We don?t want to put all of our eggs into the defense industry basket,? Ruddock said.

Instead, companies are shifting into homeland security work, Ruddock noted, in part with the assistance of the John P. Murtha Institute for Homeland Security at IUP.

The institute itself grew out of Murtha earmarks. The university, in announcing the center in 2003, said that ?Congressman Murtha has arranged for more than $20 million in funding to IUP for homeland security initiatives.?

Since its launch, the institute has wobbled a bit. Jeffrey Crane, the institute?s new executive director, said, ?I came in last year; the institute was a little bit dormant ... [it] has been running but it hasn?t been at full swing? because its programs are scattered around various academic departments. Crane said his mission is to revitalize the institute, and broaden its mission to focus on emergency preparedness and other elements of the evolving homeland security field. ?We are going after more sponsored grants from the Department of Homeland Security, and earmarks and plus-ups? that involve Murtha?s assistance, Crane said.

Ruddock and Henry also point out that there is now a critical mass of companies in the region that can serve as mentors for small businesses or partners for contracts.

But even those companies frequently are running on Murtha earmarks. Perhaps the biggest success story in the district is Concurrent Technologies Corp., a nonprofit technology innovation center that was created through Murtha earmarks in the late 1980s and has received millions in Murtha earmarks ever since.

CTC now has facilities all over the world, annual revenues of more than $230 million, more than 1,500 employees and buildings scattered around the 12th Congressional district ? including the John P. Murtha Technology Center.

But some don?t work out as well. In August 2004, Murtha announced that another Maryland-based company called Advanced Engineering and Planning Corp. had recently opened an Indiana office and would do ?much of the development work for a $3 million contract? awarded by the Navy to maintain a logistics software system.

Today AEPCO ? a KSA client ? has a staff of one person in the district, and its office is in the same building as Aeptec?s.

Murtha?s office declined to provide comment for this article.

http://www.citizensforethics.org/node/29188

http://www.breitbart.tv/html/2042.html

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Well, this is very disturbing. The left wing extremists couldn't make it on talk radio (Air America went bankrupt) so now they want to silence the conservatives who are very successful. Liberals weren't sucessful on radio because their anger and hate just didn't play well. Calling Bush a drunk and an alcholic 24/7 on Air America just didn't cut it. Who in the world wants to listen to that crap? But if you can't compete, then use the government to force liberals onto the radio, if you want it or not.  F**k the free market. Like there aren't enough outlets to receive their wild eyed left wing talking points -- from CBS, MSNBC, CNN and the rest of the biased "news" sources.

When can we start impeaching or expelling the corrupt Dems, like John Murtha and William Jefferson?

What can the Dems possibly run on in 2008? That they did a tremendous job? Nancy Pelosi is a disaster.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKsoXHYICqU&eurl=