Truth Patrol

Kevin Spacey House of Cards Wall Street Journal, The Most Devious Man in D.C. Kevin Spacey Discusses 'House of Cards,' TV's Business Model and Today's Washington, Rachel Dodes, Jan. 30, 2014. In Season 1 of the inside-the-Beltway drama "House of Cards," fictitious Congressman Frank Underwood (Kevin Spacey) carried on a quid pro quo affair with a young journalist, baited a political ally with a prostitute and then killed him, all in service to his bottomless ambition: to be one heartbeat away from the presidency.

President Obama recently said he likes "House of Cards," but that it portrays a Washington that is far more efficient than it is in reality. Would you agree with that?

I think that as time goes on, people and historians have an opportunity to look back on political figures in this country, who, maybe during their ascendancy or during their years in power were perceived as ruthless sons of bitches. Yet, you can look at some of those figures now and realize yeah, that's all true, but they got a lot done. And whether you look at someone like Johnson, who made terrible decisions about Vietnam which destroyed his presidency, but he also passed three Civil Rights bills in a very short presidency. There's no way that was easy. I do think there's something very interesting about an American public viewing a fictional Congress that is very effective at a time when we have a Congress that is not effective.

You're originally from New Jersey—what do you think of this Chris Christie bridge-gate situation? The story sounds like it could have been in an episode of "House of Cards."

I will say that there were many times during Season 1 and many times during Season 2 where I'd be watching what would happen in politics and this and that and I'd think to myself "our story lines really are not that crazy."

Wall Street Journal, Justice Goes After the GOP, Harvey Silverglate, Jan. 30, 2014. Investigating Chris Christie's administration, indicting another prominent Republican. Is it political? Is Eric Holder's Justice Department driven by a political agenda, or are the department's recent prosecutorial decisions simply signs of overzealousness? The Justice Department has focused on two prominent Republicans, announcing a corruption indictment of former Virginia Gov. Robert McDonnell and launching an active and very public criminal investigation into the antics of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's administration. In doing so, federal prosecutors have created at least the appearance that they are targeting two men who have been touted as plausible candidates for the GOP presidential nomination in 2016. A reading of the McDonnell indictment raises the obvious question of why the feds are charging someone who, as governor, engaged in conduct that is run-of-the-mill political activity in virtually all jurisdictions, but especially in states, like Virginia, whose laws quite clearly allow it. Certainly Mr. McDonnell and his wife, Maureen, don't come off well in the indictment. She in particular is painted as greedy even by political standards. Both are charged with receiving expensive gifts as well as loans from businessman Jonnie R. Williams Sr., whose commercial dietary supplements were promoted by the governor. Mr. McDonnell and his wife also invited Mr. Williams to dinners and events at the governor's mansion and arranged audiences for him with state health officials. Mr. McDonnell's legal team responded to the accusations in a blistering motion in federal court in Richmond on Jan. 21, the day the indictment was announced, asserting that the activities alleged against Mr. McDonnell are no different from those of political figures nationwide. To charge Mr. McDonnell on these counts would, according to the defense, suggest an "untested, novel construction of the federal bribery statutes" that would put every state—and, for that matter, federal—officeholder in jeopardy of federal indictment. The defense motion points out that Anthony Troy, a former Democratic attorney general of Virginia, "conducted an in-depth investigation into this issue" and concluded that since Mr. Williams and his company "neither sought nor received any special benefits from any public official," no crime was committed. Defense counsel argue that "political courtesies" extended to campaign donors or to generous friends are not crimes under any reasonable interpretation of the federal bribery statutes. Were it otherwise, notes the unusually acerbic motion, "President Obama's recent visit to DreamWorks DWA -0.62% studio in Hollywood, a company run by one of his top donors," would put Mr. Obama into the same club as Mr. McDonnell. As much could be said of every president who has awarded ambassadorships to campaign donors. The investigation into the Christie administration by U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman (a registered Democrat) likewise raises eyebrows. The story is by now familiar: In the run-up to the New Jersey gubernatorial election, the Christie administration asked the mayor of Fort Lee, Democrat Mark Sokolich, to support the governor's re-election bid. Mr. Sokolich declined. In return, it is alleged that Mr. Christie's office coordinated with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to invent a four-day traffic study that closed two lanes approaching the George Washington Bridge, thereby creating epic traffic jams in Fort Lee. Further suspected wrongdoing involves claims that the Christie administration abused its power to distribute federal disaster funds after Hurricane Sandy, withholding funds from another Democratic mayor who wasn't being sufficiently helpful with a development project favored by Mr. Christie.

The notion that a federal felony is committed when state officials reward political friends and punish enemies in this manner has become surprisingly widespread within the Justice Department. Because of vague and broad federal criminal statutes, there isn't much in public or political life these days that is not an arguable ground for an indictment. Obviously lost on federal prosecutors is the irony that their prosecutions of state politicians often create the same appearance of bias that the feds consider criminal when it is seen at the state and local level.

With the careers of two popular Republican governors—who might have been destined for national office—hanging in the balance, such suspicions of federal prosecutorial partisanship have become inevitable. But given that such federal prosecutions for state political activities abound, one must not be too quick to conclude that the department's motives are purely partisan. There may be some nonpartisan recklessness too.

Consider Justice's behavior in Massachusetts, a state dominated by a long-entrenched Democratic political machine that also has a U.S. attorney championed by Ted Kennedy and appointed by Barack Obama. Former state probation department officials are about to go on trial for awarding jobs to candidates sponsored by Democratic state legislators in exchange for support in departmental appropriations. U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz is applying a bizarre theory of criminality to this patronage—and her efforts recently received a black eye when it was learned that recommendations for hiring positions were made not only by state legislators, but also by judges and even the chancellor of Boston College, the Rev. J. Donald Monan.

Truthout, The Sugar Makes the Poison Taste Sweet, William Rivers Pitt, Jan. 30, 2014. The President of the United States gave the annual State of the Union address on Tuesday night, and if you ask the right people, they'll tell you it was well and truly a barn-burner. President Obama dropped so many left-leaning, frown-inducing lines on the Republicans arrayed before him that Speaker Boehner, visible over the president's shoulder, changed hues from his standard orange to alarming red to call-the-paramedics purple on several notable occasions. But then, if you're smart, you read the damned speech in detail...and if you did, like as not you have some serious questions to ask. Questions, for example, like why Mr. Obama spent a good portion of his speech sounding for all the world like an Occupy Wall Street protester before turning on a dime to bend his knee to the failed religion of free-market economics.And then...and then, there was Cory Remsburg, the last invited guest Mr. Obama made note of. Remsburg, an Army Ranger, was injured by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan during his tenth deployment. His tenth deployment. His tenth deployment. Cory Remsburg rose up before that parliament of whores, disfigured, maimed for life, and was duly recognized for his service and devotion to country. He received a deafening ovation from a room filled with the worst people in the country, many of whom voted over and over again to send him back to war ten times over, who cheered so loudly to cover over their shame...including the president himself, whose Afghanistan "surge" played its own part in putting Cory Remsburg in the path of the bomb that left him barely able to stand, blind in one eye, and forever damaged.

Washington Post, Va. lawmakers scrutinize past gifts, ponder ethics overhaul, Rachel Weiner, Jan. 30, 2014. Current members of the Virginia General Assembly accepted more than $260,000 in gifts last year.

Washington Post, U.S. to push for early release of more federal prisoners, Sari Horwitz, Jan. 30, 2014. Deputy Attorney General James M. Cole says the White House will seek candidates for clemency.

AP via Washington Post, US seeks death penalty for marathon suspects, Staff report, Jan. 30, 2014. U.S.The announcement by federal prosecutors that they will seek the death penalty against the man accused in the Boston Marathon bombing came as no surprise to people who lost limbs or suffered other injuries in last year’s attack. But the victims and their families expressed a range of emotions about the decision Thursday to seek the execution of a 20-year-old man prosecutors accuse of committing one of the worst terror attacks on U.S. soil since Sept. 11, 2011.

T Truth Patrol his Option 5 of public service and truth-telling is precisely what several of the most recent reviews are suggesting of Presidential Puppetry, a book with a subtitle of "Obama, Romney and Their Masters." There a have been a number of gratifying reactions to the book over the last month that help illustrate questions regarding the purpose of the media raises above.

The reason? The book breaks new ground on a number of unreported or under-reported stories about major figures in recent government. We'll excerpt those findings over the coming month. So, this is a place for more general issues, with specifics to follow.

For now, there have been five treatments in the past month especially trenchant, for these reasons:

New Haven Register

Boiling Frogs

Carson's Corner

Advance Indiana

Truth Frequency Radio, Interview of Author Andrew Kreig, Susan Lindauer, Jan. 24, 2014. As a U.S. Intelligence Asset, Susan Lindauer covered anti-terrorism at the Iraqi Embassy in New York from 1996 up to the invasion. Independent sources have confirmed that she gave advance warning about the 9/11 attack. She also started talks for the Lockerbie Trial with Libyan diplomats. Shortly after requesting to testify before Congress about successful elements of Pre-War Intelligence, Lindauer became one of the first non-Arab Americans arrested on the Patriot Act as an "Iraqi Agent". She was accused of warning her second cousin, White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card and Secretary of State Colin Powell that War with Iraq would have catastrophic consequences. Gratis of the Patriot Act, her indictment was loaded with "secret charges" and "secret evidence." She was subjected to one year in prison on Carswell Air Force Base in Fort Worth, Texas without a trial or hearing, and threatened with indefinite detention and forcible drugging to shut her up. After five years of indictment without a conviction or guilty plea, the Justice Department dismissed all charges five days before President Obama’s inauguration. Lindauer has written a book Extreme Prejudice: The Terrifying Story of the Patriot Act and the Cover Ups of 9/11 and Iraq about her experience.

over the past Carson's Corner, xxxxx, Bob Carson, Jan. 19, 2014.On this episode of Carson's Corner, we welcome back to the show Andrew Kreig. Kreig, an investigator, journalist, author, and executive director of the Justice Integrity Project, has investigated Governor Christie extensively over the past 4 years. Andrew and I will discuss the latest news on the Christie scandal, implications for the future, and much more. We'll also discuss how the Christie saga helps Jeb Bush in 2016. Plus, Andrew has used his extensive research skills to write his second book, Presidential Puppetry: Obama, Romney, and Their Masters. We will be discussing this book at length, which has stunning details about Obama. Don't miss this great edition of Carson's Corner.

Advance Indiana, Presidential Puppetry: A Must Read, Gary Welsh, Jan. 26, 2014. I don't often promote books to my readers, but this one requires your attention. This past week, I've had the opportunity to read a complimentary copy of Andrew Kreig's, "Presidential Puppetry: Obama, Romney and Their Masters." It dovetails perfectly with the cynical conclusions I've drawn about our two-party system in this country often on this blog and how the top leaders of both parties, as well as the big corporate media, simply do the bidding of their puppet masters, the military industrial complex that has assumed virtual control of every major aspect of this country, particularly following the government coup d'etat accomplished in 1963 by the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The forces that ended his presidency have prospered and dramatically strengthened the iron fist they exercise to the detriment of most Americans who remain silent as rights we believed our constitution guaranteed to all of us as citizens of a democratic republic are eroded by a Nazi-styled government instituted for the benefit of an elite few.

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Related News Coverage

Boiling Frogs Post, Exclusive- Interview with Andrew Kreig: The CIA, Global Empire & the U.S. Presidency, Mark Mondalek, Jan. 10, 2014. Uncovering the Puppet Master Class of the Mega-Corporations. In this exclusive interview with Andrew Kreig, author of Presidential Puppetry: Obama, Romney and Their Masters (Eagle View Books, 2013), we discuss the findings behind his most recent research into President Obama’s contentious past, the current and historical impact of the intelligence services on American politics, and the Mitt Romney, Mormon-inspired presidency that might-have-been.

New Haven Register, Kreig's 'Presidential Puppetry' gives road map to master manipulators, Andy Thibault, Dec. 31, 2013. Andrew Kreig covered federal courts in the 1970s for The Hartford Courant. Kreig went on to earn law degrees from Yale and the University of Chicago and now runs an investigative reporting non-profit in Washington, D.C., the Justice Integrity Project. The organization reports on political prosecutions and official misconduct. Kreig broke the story of how President-elect Obama’s transition team feared a revolt if the new commander in chief pushed prosecution of CIA officials for torture and other crimes. “Presidential Puppetry” documents how Obama is among all recent U.S. presidents who have fostered confidential relationships with the CIA or FBI before they entered politics. For example, Obama’s first job out of college was for Business International Corporation, revealed by The New York Times as a CIA front.

Torrington Register-Citizen, Kreig's 'Presidential Puppetry' gives road map to master manipulators, Andy Thibault, Dec. 31, 2013. http://www.registercitizen.com/opinion/20131231/cool-justice-kreigs-presidential-puppetry-gives-road-map-to-master-manipulators

Middletown Press, Kreig's 'Presidential Puppetry' gives road map to master manipulators, Andy Thibault, Dec. 31, 2013,
http://www.middletownpress.com/opinion/20131231/cool-justice-kreigs-presidential-puppetry-gives-road-map-to-master-manipulators

New Haven Register, Kreig’s ‘Presidential Puppetry’ gives road map to master manipulators, Andy Thibault, Dec. 31, 2013. Andrew Kreig covered federal courts in the 1970s for The Hartford Truth Patrol Courant. Kreig seemed like he knew what he was doing, so I followed him around for a bit. The guy wore a nice suit, white shirt and a skinny tie. He was well over six-feet tall and trim. He moved swiftly and deliberately. I learned some time later he had been a boxer at Cornell, reaching the heavyweight finals of the Niagara Region AAU Golden Gloves. In federal court, the clerks and even the judges were friendly to him. I didn’t know what I was doing, but that didn’t really matter. I was a cub reporter for the Norwich paper, and most days started that way. By the end of the day, I was sort of supposed to know what I was doing. His reporting on the 2008 and 2012 elections inspired him to probe who really pulls the strings in Washington. The result is a most provocative book, “Presidential Puppetry: Obama, Romney and Their Masters.” Kreig broke the story of how President-elect Obama’s transition team feared a revolt if the new commander in chief pushed prosecution of CIA officials for torture and other crimes. “Presidential Puppetry” documents how Obama is among all recent U.S. presidents who have fostered confidential relationships with the CIA or FBI before they entered politics. For example, Obama’s first job out of college was for Business International Corporation, revealed by The New York Times as a CIA front.

American Journalism Review, State of The American Newspaper In Lord Thomson’s Realm, William Prochnau, October 1998. In small towns across America, the Canadian-born chain struggles with its penny-pinching legacy. Roy Thomson, left (1894-1976), never visited this place. But, as the penultimate newspaper monopolist, he would have loved it. The mountainous geography around Cumberland pens in the kind of territorial stronghold out of which he mined one of the least known but most astounding newspaper fortunes--and showed others how to do it, too. Thomson was one of the most unlikely newspaper barons in the checkered history of a colorful business. A Canadian, he was halfway through his life before he ever dipped his fingers into printers' ink. A backwoods traveling salesman, he had peddled auto parts, radios, refrigerators and washing machines in the gold fields of northern Ontario, barely staving off bankruptcy. He was almost 40 years old, at the height of the Great Depression, when he first dusted the cobwebs off a used printing press in Timmins, Ontario. For $200 down he began an empire knowing nothing about journalism except that, as he later put it, news was "the stuff you separate the ads with."

OpEdNews, The Rob Kall Bottom Up Radio Show, Interview of Andrew Kreig, Presidential Puppetry author, broadcast Nov. 20, 2013.

Catching Our Attention on other Justice, Media & Integrity Issues

OpEdNews, The Fukushima Secrecy Syndrome -- From Japan to America, Ralph Nader, right, Jan. 26, 2014. Last month, the ruling Japanese coalition parties quickly rammed through Parliament a state secrets law. We Americans better take notice. Under its provisions the government alone decides what are state secrets and any civil servants who divulge any "secrets" can be jailed for up to 10 years. Journalists caught in the web of this vaguely defined law IAEA Inspectors at TEPCO plant at Fukishima Nov. 27, 2013 (Photo by International Atomic Energy Agency) can be jailed for up to five years. Government officials have been upset at the constant disclosures of their laxity by regulatory officials before and after the Fukushima nuclear power disaster in 2011, operated by Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO). There is good reason why the New York Times continues to cover the deteriorating conditions in the desolate, evacuated Fukushima area. Our country has licensed many reactors here with the same designs and many of the same inadequate safety and inspection standards. Week after week, reports appear in the press revealing the seriousness of the contaminated water flow, the inaccessible radioactive material deep inside these reactors and the need to stop these leaking sites from further poisoning the land, food and ocean. Officials now estimate that it could take up to 40 years to clean up and decommission the reactors.

Reuters, China jails prominent rights activist for four years, Jan. 26, 2014. A court sentenced one of China's most prominent rights advocates to four years in prison on Sunday after he campaigned for the rights of children from rural areas to be educated in cities and for officials to disclose their assets. Xu Zhiyong's jailing will send a stark warning to activists that the Chinese Communist Party will crush any challenge to its rule, especially from those who seek to organize campaigns. It also diminishes hopes for meaningful political change, even as China pledges to embark on economic reforms. Separately, one of China's most prominent dissidents, Hu Jia, who frequently accuses authorities of infringing civil liberties, said police had summoned him on a charge of "suspicion of causing a disturbance."

Washington Post, Bob and Maureen McDonnell, businessman bonded over financial needs, prosecutors say, Carol D. Leonnig and Rosalind S. Helderman, Jan. 25, 2014. In their first real conversation beyond brief pleasantries, Jonnie R. Williams Sr. and the soon-to-be first couple of Virginia found themselves in a swanky hotel lounge in New York, chatting about a dress. Maureen McDonnell fretted to the Richmond area businessman about expenses for her husband’s coming inaugural and wondered aloud whether she could ever afford a sufficiently elegant gown. The wealthy businessman didn’t know the couple well, having spoken with the then-candidate only in passing. He had earned this private audience in December 2009 by lending Robert F. McDonnell’s gubernatorial campaign his private plane earlier that year. The relationship culminated in the dramatic downfall of a onetime presidential hopeful. Behind the scenes, Star Scientific desperately needed validation and trust in its new product line. And the McDonnells needed a financial patron, as they privately struggled with mounting debt and clung at times to a luxury life beyond the means of a public servant.

Huffington Post, Rich Businessman Compares Treatment Of The Rich To The Holocaust, Alexis Kleinman, Jan. 25, 2014. Venture capitalist Thomas Perkins wrote a letter to the editors at the Wall Street Journal, comparing the plight of the rich to the Holocaust, called "Progressive Kristallnacht Coming?"... and the WSJ published it. Thomas Perkins, right, one of the founders of venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers, was comparing taxes on the super rich to the slaughter of millions in the Holocaust. Perkins ends his rant with: "This is a very dangerous drift in our American thinking. Kristallnacht was unthinkable in 1930; is its descendent 'progressive' radicalism unthinkable now?"

SFGate.com, Kleiner Perkins distances itself from controversial Tom Perkins editorial defending the rich, Dean Takahashi, Jan. 26, 2014. Tom Perkins didn’t make any friends yesterday with a letter to the Wall Street Journal that compared critics of the rich to the persecutors of Jews in Nazi Germany. And KPCB itself has distanced itself from him. The swift criticism of Perkins’ letter shows the sensitivity in the tech world to the issue of fairness toward the poor, particularly in San Francisco, where the growing affluence of tech citizens is raising rents and driving out longtime residents who are part of the 99 percent. Perkins criticized the protests against Google buses and the Occupy movement. He said the “progressive radicalism” against the rich could instigate a new “Kristallnacht,” or the “night of broken glass” when the Nazis rounded up Jews in pre-World War II Germany and Austria in 1938. About 91 Jews were killed in the attacks, and 30,000 were arrested. In a tweet, KPCB said, “Tom Perkins has not been involved in KPCB in years. We were shocked by his views expressed today in the WSJ and do not agree.” Clearly, the venture firm that backed companies like Google, Amazon, and Genentech doesn’t want to embroil itself in a debate that will cost it some venture business. See also, Fortune Magazine, Tom Perkins' hot venture, A legendary investor aims to be a racy novelist with his new book 'Sex and the Single Zillionaire,' David Whitford, FSB editor at large, Feb. 17, 2006. Tom Perkins needs no help meeting women, thank you very much. The co-founder of Kleiner Perkins (www.kpcb.com), the most storied VC firm in Silicon Valley, is tall and fit. He has lively eyes, a strong jaw, and a good head of hair. He looks cool in an English pinstriped suit. His new boat, the Maltese Falcon, launching this month from Istanbul, is longer than your boat; at 289 feet, it's the longest private sailboat in the world.

New York Times, The Koch Party, Editorial Board, JaN. 25, 2014. Only a few weeks into this midterm election year, the right-wing political zeppelin is fully inflated with secret cash and is firing malicious falsehoods at supporters of health care reform. As Carl Hulse of The Times reported recently, Democrats have been staggered by a $20 million advertising blitz produced by Americans for Prosperity, the conservative advocacy group organized and financed by the Koch brothers, billionaire industrialists. The ads take aim at House and Senate candidates for re-election who have supported the health law, and blame them for the hyped-up problems with the law’s rollout that now seem to be the sole plank in this year’s Republican platform.