Political Venting - Before I Go Crazy

First, I'd love to thank Ben Smith at Politico.com for doing this. The this in question is watching Fox News so that we don't have to. Unluckily for Ben, that meant he had to watch the following exchange this morning:

STEVE DOOCY: Did you know that Barack Obama's middle name is “Hussein?”

BRIAN KILMEADE: I have heard that.

STEVE DOOCY: Yeah. And of course, his father, born Muslim, died an atheist and gave him that middle name. And a lot of people have said, “Well, that's a political liability.” However, there is something interesting that is going on on Facebook where a lot of people are trying to diffuse it as a political liability.

GRETCHEN CARLSON: Yeah, a lot of young folks, Brian, taking “Hussein” as their own middle name now. I find this really interesting. It’s a movement, but it’s several hundred people, so I don’t know how big of a movement it really is. But they’re showing solidarity with Barack Obama. In other words, saying there is nothing wrong with having the middle name of Hussein. So people like Ashley Holmes of Indianapolis, here is her quote, “My name is such a vanilla white girl American name. To show how little meaning Hussein really has I’m choosing to make that my middle name.”

BRIAN KILMEADE: Thanks for the explanation.

GRETCHEN CARLSON: Well, you know, I think that points pretty clearly about how some young people feel about all this. I didn't know that there was anything wrong with having an American name but apparently some people believe that there is.

BRIAN KILMEADE: Yeah, it's vanilla. And what’s wrong with vanilla all of the sudden? Daily Kos, someone blogged on there “We are all Hussein” and wrote this article on Daily Kos, which I think is left wing.

STEVE DOOCY: Sure.

BRIAN KILMEADE: By the way, where did this all come from? Perhaps from a Greek name, “Spartacus.” Remember this?[Clips from movie Spartacus; many yelling “I am Spartacus”]

STEVE DOOCY: Wait a minute, that was [inaudible]. That wasn’t Spartacus.

BRIAN KILMEADE: That was – it shows a coming together of people, Steve.

STEVE DOOCY: Yeah.

BRIAN KILMEADE: That’s what it shows.

STEVE DOOCY: Alright. And what if you were Uncle Ed and you – that kid was named after you and suddenly, rather than being “Steven Edward Doocy” you were . . . Oh, well.

BRIAN KILMEADE: Steven Spartacus?

STEVE DOOCY: Spartacus.

Wasn't that insightful?

Isn't it amazing how Faux News is trying everything it can to not give us the news, but shape it as much as possible against one candidate. This is now the fourth time in the last month that their bias is showing so obviously. They have either hoped that Barack Obama was dead, tried tying him to terrorists either by name (in this case) or by innocuous action (fist bump.....sooo dangerous) or completely disrespected his wife by insinuating she had their children out of wedlock.

So, when will we, as Americans, not continue to support this organization or the sponsors of this organization. Namely, we must boycott those companies who see it fit to do business with this biased "journalistic" tool. It is obvious that they have no desire to be "fair and balanced."

Let's do it, let's boycott them. And here's the list to help you.

ADOBE
Adobe Adobe Systems Incorporated
345 Park Avenue San Jose, California 95110-2704
contact online

AMERICAN EXPRESS
World Financial Center 200 Vesey Street New York, NY 10285
contact online

ASTRA ZENECA
ASRA ZENECA LOS ANGELES BUSINESS CENTER
21700 Oxnard Street, Suite 300 Woodland Hills, CA 91367
contact online

AVAYA
Avaya Inc. Headquarters
211 Mt. Airy Road Basking Ridge, NJ 07920
email avaya

AMERIQUEST MORTGAGE
1100 Town and Country Rd Rd Orange, CA 92868
contact online

AT & T
ATT: Bob Nersesian
AT & T 32 Avenue of the Americans New York, NY 10013-2412
contact online

BMW
THE BMW GROUP Munich, GERMANY
contact online

BAYERTHE BAYER GROUP
100 Bayer Road Pittsburgh, PA 15205-9741
contact online

BLACK & DECKER
CONSUMER SERVICE CENTER
BLACK & DECKER
626 Hanover Pike Hampstead, MD 21074 USA
contact online

BOEING
BOEING WORLD HEADQUARTERS
100 North Riverside Chicago, IL 60606
email boeing

BRISTOL-MEYERS
BRISTOL MEYERS HEADQUARTERS
345 Park Ave.New York, NY 10154-0037
email bristol-mayers

Burlington Coat Factory
BURLINGTON COAT FACTORY
1830 Route 130 Burlington,NJ 08016
contact online

CDW
200 North Milwaukee AvenueVernon Hills, IL 60061
contact online

Celebrity Cruises
CELEBRITY-CRUISES
1080 Caribbean Way Miami, FL 33132
contact online

CheapTickets.com
CHEAP TICKETS
7 Sylvan Way Parsippany, NJ 07054
contact online

CINGULAR
CINGULAR WIRELESS
Glenridge Highlands Two
5565 Glenridge Connector
Atlanta, GA 30342
email cingular

Circuit City
CIRCUIT CITY STORES, INC.
9950 Maryland Drive Richmond, VA 23233
contact online

Dannon
DANNON CONSUMER RESPONSE CENTER
P.O. Box 90296 Allentown, PA 18109-0296
contact online

Direct TV
DIRECT TV, INC.
P.O. Box 92600 Los Angeles, CA 90009
contact online

Ditech.com
DITECH.COM
3200 Park Center Drive, Suite 150 Costa Mesa, CA 92626
contact online

Dodge
DODGE CUSTOMER ASSISTANCE CENTER
P.O. Box 21-8004 Auburn Hills, MI 48321-8004
contact online

Earthlink
EARTHLINK, INC.
1375 Peachtree St., Level A Atlanta, GA 30309
email earthlink

Edward Jones Investments
EDWARD JONES
P.O. Box 66906 St. Louis, MO 63166-6909
contact online

Eloan.com
6230 Steonehenge Mall Road Pleasanton, CA 94588
contact online

Enova
ENOVA OILc/o ADM KAO LLC
4666 Faries Parkway Decatur, IL 62526
contact online

Fidelity Investments
FIDELITY INVESTMENTS
82 Devonshire Street Boston, MA 02109-3614
contact online

Hula Networks
HULA NETWORKS
340 East Middlefield Rd. Mountain View, CA 94043
contact online

Hyatt Gold
HYATT CORPORATION
200 W Madison St, 30th Fl. Chicago, IL 60606-3413
contact online

Infiniti
INFINITI CONSUMER AFFAIRS
P.O. Box 191 Gardena, CA 90248
contact online

Jeep
JEEP DAIMLER CHRYSLER CUSTOMER ASSISTANCE CENTER
P.O. Box 21-8004 Auburn Hills, MI 48321-8004
contact online

Lending Tree
LENDING TREE INC. PMB 008
15105-D John J Delaney Drive Charlotte, NC 28277
contact online

Lexus
LEXUS P.O. Box 2991 Mail Drop L202 Torrance, CA 90509-2991

Lincoln-Mercury [Ford]
LINCOLN-MERCURY
P.O. Box 1304 Dearborn, MI 48121
contact online

Mercedes-Benz
MERCEDES-BENZ USA, LLC
Customer Assistance Center 3 Paragon Drive Montvale, N.J. 07645

Morgan Stanley
MORGAN STANLEY HQ
1585 Broadway, Floor 39 New York, NY 10036
contact online

Napster.com
NAPSTER.COMc/o ROXIO, INC.
455 El Camino Real Santa Clara, CA 95050
contact online

Northwestern Mutual
NORTHWESTERN MUTUAL LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY
720 East Wisconsin Avenue N08WC Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53202
contact online

Office Depot
OFFICE DEPOT, INC.
2200 Old Germantown Road Delray Beach, FL 33445
contact online

Progressive Insurance
THE PROGRESSIVE CORPORATION
6300 Wilson Mills Road Mayfield Village, Ohio 44143
contact online

Splenda
SPLENDAc/o JOHNSON & JOHNSON
One Johnson & Johnson Plaza New Brunswick, NJ 08933
contact online

Target
TARGET CORPORATION
1000 Nicollet Mall Mineapolis, MN 55403
contact online

Travelocity
TRAVELOCITY
3150 Sabre Dr. Southlake, TX 76092
email travelocity

Walmart
WAL-MART STORES, INC.
Bentonville, Arkansas 72716-8611
contact online

Join me. Write these companies. Stop using their products and services. Hit Faux News where it hurts them the most...in the pocketbook.

Because others do a much better job than I do, we reach the end of this part of the stupidity....

From Politico.com


Larry Sinclair is wanted in Colorado, but you can catch him today at the National Press Club.

Sinclair is familiar to political junkies and reporters as the source of outlandish allegations about Senator Barack Obama, tales that began with sex and drugs and moved on to murder.

The Duluth, Minn., resident is the sort of figure who appears at the margins of every presidential campaign, and both Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton had their own obscure accusers with dramatic allegations. But as the old media ignores him, Sinclair has taken full advantage of the Internet, and a video in which he makes his claims that have been viewed more than 900,000 times on YouTube. This afternoon, he's reserved the Holeman Lounge at downtown Washington's National Press Club to try to lend his story the legitimacy that comes with national media attention.

Sinclair's biography, though, may get in the way of that pitch: Public records and court filings reveal that he has a 27-year criminal record, with a specialty in crimes involving deceit. The record includes forgery charges in two states, one of which drew Sinclair a 16-year jail sentence. The Pueblo County, Colo., Sheriff's Office also has an outstanding warrant for Sinclair's arrest for forging an acquaintance's signature and stealing her tax refunds.

"It is what it is," said Sinclair's spokesman, Montgomery Blair Sibley, of his client's criminal record. "He's not hiding from it, he's not denying it."

Sinclair has, however, addressed elements of his criminal past on his own blog and in court filings punctuated by unusual spellings and capitalizations.

Addressing the Pueblo County theft charges, Sinclair swore in a 2004 affidavit that his "ALLEGED VICTIM SEEKS TO USE DEFENDANT AS SCAPE GOAT FOR HER HUSBANDS AND BROTHERS PROBLEMS WITH MEXICAN DRUG DEALERS."

Sinclair's affidavit, which he posted to his blog, accompanied a request to a Colorado judge to dismiss the warrant on the grounds that Sinclair was "disabled with [a] severe spine injury and nerve damage," that returning to Colorado would put his life in danger, and that he was "terminally ill."

Sinclair, who is still alive, is 46, stands 5'7", and weights 168 pounds, according to arrest records. Colorado records list him with 13 aliases, including "Larye Vizcarra Avila" and "Mohammed Gahanan." His story has generally been ignored by the mainstream media, because he's been unable to substantiate his allegations. He has come to public attention recently, however, because his planned appearance at the National Press Club drew complaints from a wide array of prominent liberal bloggers, led by Firedoglake's Jane Hamsher. Their petition to prevent Sinclair from renting space at the club – which bloggers feared would lend him credibility – drew more than 11,000 signatures.

Press Club President Sylvia Smith said Sinclair had rented space at the club, which doesn't censor speakers.

"I'm not aware that we've ever turned anybody away for content," she said, adding that Sinclair's allegations "don't seem very credible."

Politico isn't reprinting Sinclair's allegations because they are unsubstantiated.

This February, the website Whitehouse.com reportedly offered Sinclair $100,000 if he could pass a polygraph test verifying his claims. He took them up on it, and the site said in a press release that the polygraph organizers said his results "indicated deception." Sinclair then suggested the polygraph's sponsors had been bribed to skew the results against him, an allegation his lawyer, Sibley, said he would expand on at his press conference.

Sibley is best known as the lawyer for the "D.C. Madam," the late Deborah Jeane Palfrey. Earlier this year, the Florida Bar Association suspended Sibley's license to practice law, in part for being a "vexatious litigant," a suspension that applies in Washington, D.C., as well.

Wednesday, Whitehouse.com has scheduled a competing press conference outside the National Press Club to discuss the results of the polygraph.

Sinclair's brushes with the government long predate his recent interest in Senator Obama. The details of his criminal record surfaced after he filed a defamation suit in federal court in Washington, D.C., against three anonymous online critics with names like TubeSockTedD who had written, among other claims, that he was living in a mental institution at the time he allegedly met Obama. Sinclair denies the claim.

In response to his suit, a lawyer for the anonymous bloggers hired local attorneys and private investigators, and dug up details of Sinclair's criminal record from Colorado, Florida, and South Carolina. The lawyer, Paul Levy of the nonprofit Public Citizen Litigation Group, provided his client's filings in federal court, which are publicly available, to Politico.

The records tell the story of an itinerant life of small-time crime and bad checks, punctuated by stretches of jail time in two states.

He was first arrested on a larceny charge in 1981 in Denver, according to his Colorado arrest record, as filed in federal court. In 1985, he was convicted of theft and of forging a check in Florida, and sentenced to a year in jail, according to Florida records filed in federal court.

After the Florida episode, according to the records, he returned to Colorado, where he faced check fraud and credit card charges in 1986. Then, in 1987, he was convicted in Colorado on more serious forgery charges, and sentenced to 16 years in jail.

In prison, according to state records filed in federal court, Sinclair was disciplined 97 times for infractions including assault, threats, drug possession, intimidation, and verbal abuse, most recently in 1996.

"He has not institutionalized well," a spokeswoman for the Colorado Department of Corrections, Liz McDonough, told the Denver Post in 1996 after a month-long Sinclair hunger strike. She said he had served time in prisons in Buena Vista, Delta, Limon and Canon City before being transferred to the state's maximum security penitentiary in 1993.

In the summer of 1996, according to Colorado's state court database, he began proceedings to formally change his name from LA Rye Viz. Avila to Larry Wayne Sinclair. By 1999, according to a mention in a local newspaper, he was out of jail and living in Pueblo, Colo.

The Public Citizen investigator in Colorado stated that Sinclair's outstanding legal troubles there appear to date from 2001, and that Sinclair's effort to convince the judge in 2004 to dismiss those charges failed. The Pueblo County Sheriff's website, which pictures Sinclair under the word "Wanted," cites felony theft and forgery charges.

Sinclair was also arrested and charged with disorderly conduct in South Carolina last September, according to state records filed in federal court.

Sinclair has said that he tried to contact Obama in 2007 to discuss his claims and was ignored, forcing him to go public. On January 18, 2008, a one-minute-and-42-second video was posted to YouTube. It features Sinclair, speaking in a high voice and wearing a red shirt and blue baseball cap, reciting his allegations and addressing Obama.

"I challenge you to take a polygraph test," he says in the video. Since then, he's promoted and elaborated on his claims, and engaged in intense online exchanges with infuriated Obama supporters on his blog and in federal court, where Sinclair and Sibley's defamation claim has suffered a series of legal setbacks.

Obama's spokesman declined to comment on any aspect of Sinclair's story, or his appearance at the press club.

Despite the warrant for Sinclair's arrest, he appears likely to stay out of jail, as long as he stays out of Colorado. Pueblo County Undersheriff J.R. Hall said that the warrant doesn't allow for extradition from out of state.

"I doubt very seriously we're going to be in that jurisdiction tomorrow," Undersheriff Hall said of Washington, D.C.

Sinclair's notoriety, and his scheduled press conference, however, has drawn the interest of the Colorado authorities.

"We've notified the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and they will investigate," Hall said.

Disclosure: Public Citizen, which represents the bloggers Sinclair sued, also represents Ben Smith in an unrelated case.

And then...after the press conference....(also from Politico.com):

A footnote to the story of Larry Sinclair, the gadfly whose long criminal record I wrote about this morning: He was arrested by Washington, D.C. police after his press conference there today, two officials at D.C.'s First District station confirmed to Politico.

Sinclair is wanted in Colorado on theft and forgery charges, but police officials I spoke to wouldn't discuss the charges. Reason's David Weigel first reported the arrest.

Avi swung by Sinclair's press conference at the National Press Club today, an utterly strange scene whose highlight came from Sinclair's spokesman, Montgomery Blair Sibley, whose law license has been suspended, explained why he was wearing a kilt, explaining that it was more comfortable for "those of us on the other side of the genital spectrum."

At the Press Club, Avi also ran into Will Bower, a sometimes-Huffington Post blogger who founded “Party Unity, My Ass” – a group for die-hard Clinton supporters that are now backing McCain – and was invited by the McCain campaign last weekend to meet with the presumptive Republican nominee, and called Sinclair's story "worth exploring."

“I don’t think he should be written off without consideration,” he said when asked about Sinclair. “I think its worth exploring.”

So, I really do think this is the end of this sad tale. May they never darken our body politic again!

In January, the delusional rantings of Larry Sinclair first appeared on the scene. He accused Barack Obama of multiple things, each more fantastical and improbable than the last.

This week, Mr. Sinclair will spread his vicious and untrue rumors at the National Press Club in Washington D.C.

But who is Larry Sinclair. How about a convicted felon for fraud? Yup, twice over. Is his lawyer any better? Nope. Mr. Montgomery Sibley is currently pushed to be disbarred by the State of Florida for abuse of process.

Mr. Sinclair submitted to a polygraph to discern his honesty about these allegations. Of course, he would only do that if paid, which he was. And guess what, he failed two separate tests (http://www.clevelandleader.com/node/4799). Way to go, Larry!

And who is really behind this non-sense? Well, see the below (http://community.comcast.net/comcastportal/board/message?board.id=cityhall&message.id=554525):

Veritas Federal Media. Hmmm.... Who are they? Well, with a little help I found something interesting. VERITAS MEDIA GROUP LLC was registered as a limited liability corporation in Maryland. After doing a search on their Secretary of State's Department of Assessments and Taxation division, I found that VMG, LLC was registered on June 6, 2000, but the registration was "forfeited" in 2002.

So what, right? Until you get to the guy who registered VERITAS MEDIA GROUP LLC. His name is Joseph R. Giganti. Who is he?

Joseph R. Giganti is a conservative commentator who makes regular appearances on TV and radio outlets nationwide, including the Fox News Channel, CNN, and CNBC. He is the president of Veritas Media Group, a full-service media and political consulting and production firm.
Joe has worked with many of the country's leading conservatives, serving as a spokesman and the national media strategist for Ambassador Alan Keyes' 2000 presidential campaign. Prior to that, Joe was the executive producer of Keyes' nationally syndicated TV & radio simulcast. Joe also has served as a producer on the syndicated radio shows of Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North, Michael Reagan, and Ken Hamblin. He has produced and directed numerous documentaries and biographical videos, including the highly praised pop-culture documentary, "The Gates of Hell...," which was released in 2001. Joe has successfully launched programs for the Free Congress Foundation, the Center for Security Policy, The Declaration Foundation, and Salem Radio Network....

So, the great right-wing libel machine cannot beat Barack Obama on issues, so they will pay someone to lie about him being a drug user and secretly gay.

These are the people who John McCain will not stop, because he has no ability or power to be anything but Bush's and the Far Right's dog and pony candidate.

So welcome to the start of the Liars for McCain campaign....or maybe it would be safer to say Liars Against Obama and the American People campaign.

What is really sad is the National Press Club allowing itself to be used for this purpose. Just because someone can rent your facility does not mean you need to allow them to lie to the American people under the guise of a free press. Shame on you, NPC!!!

I've been a part of a national e-mail list about journalism for over 12 years. This is remarkable only in that I am NOT a journalist. I'm a computer nerd. But I am also a news and political junkie, so this list has been an important part of my life. And I've been honored to be a part of it all these years.

So today, as I was working away, came the initial e-mails....Tim Russert was dead! I was overwhelmed with saddness.

But I had a job to do. The first thing was to make sure the word was getting out to my friends on the list. So I put out the word. In very simple terms:

Tim Russert, dead at 58.
SHIT!!!!!

This is a sad day for both journalism, which he was the best in his field, and politics, which needed him more than any politician will admit. Who will step forward, who will take the responsibility to be the watchdog of our body politic?

Who will be the person to lead us through the drama of election night? Who will make sense of all the senselessness that is politics?

I don't know the answers. All I know is that I sit here, having watched a special about the life of Tim Russert, I'm struck with saddness. And hope.

Just as there was a Tim Russert, there is another. A person who will be the watchdog of our democracy.

But until that person steps forward....

Rest In Peace, Mr. Russert.