OK, stop me if you've heard this one
A man with a fake name walks into the White House...

It's been noted that Talon started on March 29, 2003 and 4 days later "Gannon" received credentials. What I haven't seen noted is that March 29, 2003 was a Saturday. Two questions arise - Is the WH press office open on weekends to process credentials?

2nd, the country was at full war alert that Saturday - remember all the concerns about sleeper cells by Tom Ridge. And I don't know this, but wasn't the Terror Alert raised to Orange during that time period? Therefore wouldn't there have been extra security and extra scrutiny on anyone applying for any WH credentials? - Al Rodgers

Flashback:

Terror alert level raised again
Posted: 03/17/2003 08:35 pm

The nation's terror alert level is back to its second-highest stage amid fears that war in Iraq could cause terrorist attacks in the US. The Department of Homeland Security has raised the alert level to orange or "high."

"When it became too big to ignore, criticize bloggers"
The Guardian's story on unmasking the "fake White House correspondent":

[Q]uestions remained yesterday about why the White House suspended the normally rigorous vetting process to issue daily passes to an organisation rejected by the Senate last year for not being a legitimate media outlet.

The extent of Gannon's links to an earlier White House scandal - the leaking of the name of the CIA agent Valerie Plame - also remained unclear yesterday.

Kos reminds us that...

Talon News existed a mere couple of days before "Gannon" was given White House press creds. A few months later, he was receiving classified CIA documents and getting to ask questions while other reporters get shut out or outright excluded. There's something going on.

The NY Times finally wakes the #uck up:

Democrats in Congress are pressing for investigations into how a Washington reporter who used a pseudonym managed to gain access to the White House and had access to classified documents that named Valerie Plame as a CIA operative.

Representatives John Conyers and Louise Slaughter wrote yesterday to the independent prosecutor appointed in the Plame case, seeking an investigation into how James Guckert, who used the name Jeff Gannon, had access to classified documents that revealed the identity of Ms. Plame.

Karl Frisch, a spokesman for Ms. Slaughter, said: "This is a guy who could not get credentialed by the House or the Senate press galleries, and yet managed to get into the White House and question the president" and have access to a top-secret document.

He added: "To imply he has no connection to the White House is just not credible."

Meanwhile, Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ), asks WH press-tool Scott McClellan to "immediately release documents to my office relating to the White House press credentials of James D. Guckert, a.k.a. Jeff Gannon.”

Lots more on the WH's Gannongate at AmericaBlog.

And in Buzzlandia, the GOP Hypocrite of the Week is... wHo(re)ward Kurtz, who, on TV and in print criticized liberal bloggers for participating in a "witch hunt."

Why did Condoliar lie?
The "keepin' us safer" misadministration's first warning on al-Qaeda has been declassified, and guess who comes out looking like a huge stinking lying sack of shit.

The URGENT January 25, 2001 report from Richard Clarke to the worthless former national security advisor not only warned of the al-Qaeda attack threat, but laid out a #ucking terrorism strategy, for petessake.

Not only that, also attached in the Clarke memo to Ms Rice was a Clinton-era document relating to al-Qaeda titled "December 2000 Paper: Strategy for Eliminating the Threat from the Jihadist Networks of al-Qida: Status and Prospects."


Bush team tried to suppress pre-9/11 report into al-Qaeda

A newly released memo warned the White House at the start of the Bush administration that al Qaeda represented a threat throughout the Islamic world, a warning that went unheeded by President Bush.

Federal officials were repeatedly warned in the months before the 11 September 2001 terror attacks that Osama bin Laden and al-Qa'ida were planning aircraft hijackings and suicide attacks, according to a new report that the Bush administration has been suppressing.

Critics say the new information undermines the government's claim that intelligence about al-Qa'ida's ambitions was "historical" in nature.

Gee, you think?

Well, this is extremely annoying. With the nerve-destroying noise from all the cube-parties and personal phone calls going on around me, I decide to take a break and check out news on the internets... and I'm the one getting a "corporate policies and procedures" notice in my inbox?? Maybe they'd be happier if I spent the rest of the day out in the smoking shed or throwing birthday parties for my lazyass coworkers.

#ucking office nazis.

Please welcome...
The Biomes Blog!

More Gannony goodness
Democrats.com demands a special prosecutor to investigate Hotconservativehomo's ties to the White House.

Rep. Slaughter writes a letter to the Bubble-Boy: "it appears that 'Mr. Gannon's' presence in the White House press corps was merely a tool of propaganda for your administration.”

The Boston Globe's ejaculatory epistle on Hotmilitarystud, the “reporter whose GOP connections, lack of journalistic credentials, and softball questioning of [Moron McMonkeybrains] raised questions about the White House's decision to grant him access to news conferences, abruptly quit yesterday after bloggers connected him to websites apparently devoted to gay sex.”

The Rude Pundit sez: “Hey, Wolf Blitzer and Howard Kurtz, you ten-cent a blow whores, we only give a shit that Gannon/Guckert's queer because he's enabling an administration that has staked out a reactionary position on gay rights.”

And finally, it seems that all of “Gannon's” stories have been deleted from the GOPUSA.com website. According to Google, 884 links have disappeared.

But... but... we didn't have their seat numbers!
Reports that were previously kept under wraps by the Bush misadministration show that the FAA received 52 warnings about possible attacks by Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda in the 6 months prior to 9/11, including reports that specifically discussed airline hijackings and suicide operations.

Well, that’s good enough for me
Apparently Jesus was a cat person.

Reid urges Bush to disavow g-puke 13-page smear job
Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid on Monday urged Jebus’s Fave-rit Preznit to call on the RNC to quit branding him an obstructionist and criticizing his Senate record, a tactic the rethugs used to help defeat Reid's predecessor, Tom ‘Isadora’ Daschle.

"Why didn't he stand and tell the American people last Wednesday that one of the first items of business we were going to do in Washington is send out a hit piece on the Democratic leader?" Reid said.

Good gravy
Kerry may have forgotten Poland, but at least he didn't demote their president to PM.

The art of whoring
David at Fafblog must be reading my mind. I could have cheerfully ripped Blitzer’s head off, shit down his neck, and rammed a pineapple up Howie’s rectum sideways after watching CNN last night.

As Wolfie thanked fellow whore Howie for “digging” up the story, all I could think was ‘puh - the only thing wHo(re)ward Kurtz dug was his tongue out of Karl Rove’s ass long enough to shill for him on TV.’

Read the transcript here. Bonus Rove-points go to WH towelboy Blitzer, for blithely writing off the rethug trashing of Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley’s personal life, but castigating him for mentioning 9/11 and the Chimperor’s soul-destroying budget proposal in practically the same sentence.

Typical wHo(re)ward Kurtz
AmericaBlog takes Howie Fucknutz to the woodshed:

On CNN, he paints the story as "did these liberal bloggers go too far in investigating this guy's personal life?" {Ed. note: “Monica Lewinsky.” End of story, you fucking wHore.}

Oh, I don't know. The issue here is whether we might have a male prostitute (or pimp) asking questions of the president and being leaked internal CIA documents. And Kurtz doesn't think that's a story worth investigating.

Not to mention, did Kurtz even ask Gannon the most obvious question from Journalism 101: Are you in any way associated with the Web addressses MilitaryEscorts.com and MilitaryEscortsM4M.com?

Then your second question is: It appears these Web sites deal with prostitution - a crime - am I wrong?

And his third question should have been: In 2003, top White House officials gave "Jeff Gannon" exclusive access to an internal CIA memo that named Joseph Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, as a covert CIA agent – WTF, dude???

[A]nd by the way, isn't it strange the White House thinks its ok for such a guy to get a daily press pass in shooting distance from the president?? - Steve Talbert

Typical. Reichwing bloggers trash Dan Rather, a man with a respectable career (no matter what you thought of the man himself), but liberal bloggers expose this cheap hack, with actual facts and verifiable information, with overtones of a possible Federal crime having been committed (the Plame memos) and we've "gone too far". Sickening. - D

[T]he public 'outing' of an undercover CIA agent who was protecting America from terrorists is a lot more outrageous than the 'outing' of some 2-bit matchbook-cover fake "journalist" rent boy propagandist. He's getting some snarky emails, and she can never show her face in public again. My heart is not bleeding for you, "Gannon." I have no sympathy for you, "Gannon." Anyone who defends this piece of shit traitor "Gannon" doesn't understand the severity of the situation AT ALL. - MayorMcCheese

Ain’t it reel funny how da Librul Bloggers dun went too far accordin to Howie Kurtz, but "Jeff Gannon's" relationship to FreeRepublic.com aint even an issure. - OxyConservative

And from a poster at The Conservative Voice:

I understand that this guy has spent time at the Bush mansion in Crawford. Was he arranging escorts?

"Jeff Gannon" and the Valerie Plame affair
How a fake journalist from a fake news organization got access to classified CIA documents.

An incredible piece of real investigative journalism:

[H]ow is it that a journalist who only set up shop in March 2003 and received WH press credentials on April 3, 2003 and posts regularly on the FreeRepublic.com bulletin boards, was "in the loop" enough to have knowledge of a classified CIA memo by October 2003, that supposedly only "inside-the-beltway types" knew about and no one at the CIA would confirm?

There is only one conclusion. He was planted by, and used to help, the administration.

- read the whole thing at the Daily Kos. Great stuff.



"Jeff Gannon" and the CBS/TANG affair
Did WH plant “Gannon” have preferential access to the forged documents given to CBS?

Bush press pal quits over gay prostie link
(Actual headline from the NY Daily News)

"The issue here is whether someone with connections to male prostitution was given unfettered access to the White House and copies of internal CIA documents. For a family values administration, that's pretty creepy." - blogger John Aravosis.

The situation "begs further investigation. In the six years I worked for Reagan and Bush I, I remember the White House being strict about who got in. It's inconceivable to me that the White House, especially after 9/11, gives credentials to people without doing a background check." - James Pinkerton, at time of posting, still a media critic for Fox News.

A conservative ringer who was given a press pass by the White House and lobbed softball questions at President Bush quit yesterday after left-leaning Internet bloggers discovered possible ties to gay prostitution*.

* and discovered he had been given classified CIA memos that named agent Valerie Plame, dickheads. Criminey.

** thank God for “left-leaning Internet bloggers,” who are practicing real journalism while the SCLM and the “MSM” are happily sucking at the WH dick.

Rep. Slaughter calls on boy king to explain emerging White House Briefing Room scandal
Cool:

Rep. Louise M. Slaughter (NY), long-time champion of media reform and Ranking Member of the House Committee on Rules, sent a letter to President George W. Bush today asking him to explain how discredited "reporter" Jeff Gannon was credentialed as a member of the legitimate media by the White House.

Please pass the popcorn! Woot!

You can tell it's a budget: it's got lots of numbers in it
Bush's budget to cut spending on ineffective federal programs. That is, unless the ineffective federal program is 'abstinence based,' in which case funding will be increased by $39m.


Quote
"Keep voting for the REAL elites, America. Oh, but you'll have to pay for your own KY as they shove it up your ass."
- Liberal and Proud.

White House balks at submitting Social Security plan to Congress
Chickenshits.

The White House has told lawmakers it has no immediate plans to submit its own detailed proposal to Congress for overhauling Social Security, sources briefed by the administration said on Tuesday.

Republican and Democratic congressional aides said the White House made clear it would not submit a legislative proposal, at least not for the time being. Instead, the White House will try to coordinate efforts with lawmakers crafting their own proposals.

A Democratic congressional aide said the White House was "backsliding" in the face of stiffer-than-expected opposition.

He's ok with discussing it with handpicked audience members at his faux-townhall meetings, though:

"Because the - all which is on the table begins to address the big cost drivers. For example, how benefits are calculate, for example, is on the table; whether or not benefits rise based upon wage increases or price increases. There's a series of parts of the formula that are being considered. And when you couple that, those different cost drivers, affecting those - changing those with personal accounts, the idea is to get what has been promised more likely to be - or closer delivered to what has been promised.

"Does that make any sense to you? It's kind of muddled. Look, there's a series of things that cause the - like, for example, benefits are calculated based upon the increase of wages, as opposed to the increase of prices. Some have suggested that we calculate - the benefits will rise based upon inflation, as opposed to wage increases. There is a reform that would help solve the red if that were put into effect. In other words, how fast benefits grow, how fast the promised benefits grow, if those - if that growth is affected, it will help on the red."

Honor, integrity, values
Zzzzzzzzzzzzz...

Senate Minority leader Reid suprised to discover Bush's idea of bipartisanship is to send millions of people a 13-page-long smear job about the Senator's voting record.

The Republican National Committee is set to begin a prolonged attack against newly installed Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) aimed at weakening his support in his home state as well as on the national level. Drawing on a blueprint used successfully against former Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.), the RNC will send a 13-page research document today to roughly 1 million people — a group that includes journalists, donors and grass-roots activists — detailing Reid’s alleged obstructionism among other topics.

Don't forget Poland!

The boy king said Wednesday he will ask Congress for $100 million to help modernize armed forces in Poland, a staunch ally in the war in Iraq. Bush said he was confident that his adoring acolytes, including perennial asskissing toady Joe Lieberman, would approve the money, an increase over the $60 million the United States gave Poland last year.

"Poland has been a fantastic ally because the president and the people of Poland love freedom," Bunnypants chirped.

Idiot.

You know what to do
Bolivia's Madidi National Park is asking for help in naming a monkey.