That Doonesbury cartoon was RIGHT! They've already replaced "Gannon"

[Nothing Without Hope]

I've watched the blivet**'s press conference on C-SPAN (video linked to on front page of their home page - http://www.c-span.org
and I've read the transcript, which is available on this thread:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1317240

Putting them together, I've concluded that Trudeau was absolutely on target with that cartoon. They've already replaced "Gannon" with an "EXISTING STOOGE" who can serve the function of lofting super-softball "questions" that only give the blivet** a chance to preen. JimmyJeff himself couldn't have done it better, at least while he was fully clothed:

Q Mr. President, you faced a lot of skepticism in the run-up to the Iraq war, and a lot of criticism for miscalculating some of the challenges of postwar Iraq. Now that the Iraq elections seem to be triggering signs of democratization throughout the broader Middle East, do you feel any sense of vindication?

THE PRESIDENT: First of all, I fully understand that as long as I'm the President I will face criticism. It's like part of the job. Frankly, you wouldn't be doing your job if you didn't occasionally lay out the gentle criticism. I welcome constructive ideas as to how we might do our job better. So that doesn't bother me. And, therefore, since it doesn't bother me and I expect it, I don't then seek vindication.

Look, history -- shall I give you my talk on history and presidencies? Okay, thank you. I don't -- what's interesting is George Washington is now getting a second, or third, or fifth, or tenth look in history. I read the Ellis book, which is a really interesting book, and -- "His Excellency," it's called. And McCullough is writing a book on George Washington, as well. People are constantly evaluating somebody's standing in history, a President's standing in history, based upon events that took place during the presidency, based upon things that happened after the presidency, based upon -- like in my case, hopefully, the march of freedom continues way after my presidency. And so I just don't worry about vindication or standing.

The other thing, it turns out, in this job you've got a lot on your plate on a regular basis, you don't have much time to sit around and wander, lonely, in the Oval Office, kind of asking different portraits, how do you think my standing will be? (Laughter.) I've got a lot to do. And I like to make decisions, and I make a lot of them.

I think the shill who asked that one was the Washington Times correspondent. (This needs to be confirmed by watching that part of the video and I can't bring myself to do that just before bedtime. The softball correspondent's name and affiation were given. It was close to the 30 minute mark (of 48 minutes) in the C-SPAN recording.) "Gannon" himself could not have thrown a softer lob, as one would expect from a hack from that ultra-RW Moonie newspaper. And the blivet**'s "answer" was largely incoherent, but he appeared to be comparing himself with George Washington (my jaw drops at such baseless, boundless, delusional hubris) for "bringing democracy" to the Middle East. We need to confirm the identity of that questioner and keep an eye on his behavior in press conferences and his printed articles. He's looking like a planted shill just like "Gannon" was.

Like the Doonesbury cartoon said, they couldn't use an outside stooge any more, they have to use an EXISTING ONE. And there are probably more. After all, they don't want to just keep turning to the same guy over and over. Why, it only took a couple of years for JimmyJeff to be found out!

For your delectation, another Press Conference cartoon and a captioned photo from today's AllHatNoCattle.net site:

[bogey18]

1. Our president

is an incoherent moron. "I like to make decisions, and I make a lot of them."

God help us all.

[Nothing Without Hope]

4. And the way he said that line, which really struck me at the time, was

especially bizarre in the way he emphasized the wrong words: "I LIKE to make decisions, and I make a lot OF them!"

I can hardly begin to list all the horrible policy-related statements he made in that speech while at the same time being incoherent, rambling, inane, and totally clueless. We need to go over the transcript and make a list of what he is now on record as supporting or opposing. It's appalling. I was going to take notes, but then I was just so shocked I had to stop.

[LittleClarkie]

5. I MISS NIXON!

At least HE could form a sentence!

[Nothing Without Hope]

10. Yeah, and he wouldn't have taken the country THIS far down the hole

which is saying something, because he was a terrible man and a worse president.

[LittleClarkie]

11. Exactly! I'm so tempted to wear my "Nixon Now" button so people will ask

and so I can tell them.

One of the people I know calls Nixon "a pussy". If that isn't proof enough...

[Nothing Without Hope]

15. Yeah, you've got to wonder when someone thinks Nixon wasn't evil enough nt

[FreedomAngel82]

31. Really

Nixon was an SOB but at least he had a brain and used it more than W. Oy! Bush is just shameful and dangerous.

[Contrary1]

26. The only decision he has to make daily

is how often to call "Turd Blossom" so that he can make those decisions.

[FreedomAngel82]

30. Reading that one quote

makes it so hard to believe a person who says that is president of the free world. It seems like a young elementary child saying it.

[Carolab]

2. I'll watch and see if I can spot it. n/t

[BrklynLiberal]

3. Every single one of them is currently on the payroll.

[Nothing Without Hope]

8. I'm sure you're right. Several more cartoons- even Brenda Starr is shocked

and the wonderful cartoon in the OP of this thread:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x3286225

[seventythree]

6. I watched it twice and it was a Washington Times reporter

surprised? a Moonie?

[Nothing Without Hope]

9. Thanks for the confirmation! Yeah, it fits, but it's still appalling

That exchange is jaw-dropping. :wow:

I thought the C-SPAN video flashed the name of that Moonie Times reporter, but I may be misremembering. It really is eerie how reality has become EXACTLY like what Trudeau presented in that cartoon. The Secretary of Toady Affairs even LOOKS like Karl Rove, and what better title for him have you ever heard? Even "Turd Blossom" is a compliment of a sort.

[quinnox]

7. It was a Washington Times reporter

and it was disgraceful but so in character, for Bush to compare himself to Washington.

I imagine this reporter will be getting called on a lot more in the future in press conferences with Bush and Scotty, I agree.

[Carolab]

12. Nickname is "Stretch".

That's familiar. I remember hearing it before but not for this guy.

I found it phoney as hell that Bush said he was reading a book about Washington. He doesn't read at all, is what I understood. Are they trying to make it appear as though he does?

[Nothing Without Hope]

14. I think I recall the blivet** saying that name multiple times

What's his real name? I think the C-SPAN video flashed that on the screen when he asked that amazingly obvious planted "question" around the 30 minute mark (of 48). Don't want to look again right now, just ate.

We need to monitor this and also the articles that this guy puts out. He may stay fully clothed (or not, but I don't want to think about that) but he is definitely one of the "Gannon" replacements. The Moonie-owned Washington Times is already notorious for its shameless Bush ass-kissing on every issue, and there is a LOT of money involved in the Moonie empire as well as that weird business of US congressmen participating in the "coronation" of Moon as something like world savior, remember that? Lots of fishy connections.

[Carolab]

24. Not to mention that Poppy and Babs go around making lectures for him.

What about THAT???

[Nothing Without Hope]

25. Can you expand on that? Sounds very intriguing!

And I bet Moonie money is behind at least some of his propaganda efforts. There's a very unsavory history there, I have no doubt.

[Carolab]

29. Here's something on that.

http://www.commondreams.org/views01/0103-07.htm

[Nothing Without Hope]

32. Thanks! Verrrry interesting. And Sammons works for the Moonie Times

An excerpt from the very interesting January 2001 article you cite (which is well worth reading in its entirety):

While negotiating those business deals with North Korea in the 1990s, Moon’s organization also hired former President George H.W. Bush and former First Lady Barbara Bush to give speeches at Moon-sponsored events.

During one Moon-sponsored speech in Argentina in November 1996, former President Bush declared, “I want to salute Reverend Moon,” whom Bush praised as “the man with the vision.”

The father of the incoming U.S. president has refused to divulge how much Moon’s organization paid for these speeches which were delivered in the United States, Asia and South America.

Some press estimates have put the fees in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, though one former leader of Moon’s Unification Church told me that the organization had earmarked $10 million for the former president.

Ex-President Bush’s pro-Moon speeches came at a time, too, when Moon – now 80 – was expressing intensely anti-American views. In the mid-1990s, Moon denounced the United States as “Satan’s harvest” and condemned American women as having descended from a “line of prostitutes.”

We really, really need to follow the money on these propaganda machines, including those walking on two legs and attending the WH press conferences.

[flpoljunkie]

16. "Stretch" is Bill Sammon, a long-time Bush administration toady.

[CatWoman]

17. After sElection 2000

Bill Sammon wrote a book --

[Nothing Without Hope]

22. "At Any Cost: How AL GORE Tried To Steal the Election"??!! And OTHERS

I checked Amazon and found three Bill Sammon books:

Misunderestimated: The President Battles Terrorism, John Kerry, and the Bush Haters
by Bill Sammon, Publisher: ReganBooks (April 1, 2004)

Fighting Back: The War on Terrorism from Inside the Bush White House
by Bill Sammon, Publisher: Regnery Publishing, Inc. (October 7, 2002)

At Any Cost : How Al Gore Tried to Steal the Election
by Bill Sammon, Publisher: Regnery Publishing, Inc. (May 7, 2001)

If you use the Amazon feature of "looking inside" these books or read the glowing reviews by freepers, you may lose your lunch. Straight fascist party line.

I know that Regnery is a notorious publisher of neocon trash. Does anyone know more about ReganBooks? Are they related? I'm betting both have a connection to the Moonies and they certainly are tied to the neocon cartel. Propaganda machine slime. This guy Bill Sammons is referred to on the cover of the latest as "The senior WH Correspondent for the Washington Times." Oh, yeah, he's already been Gannoning for some time and now he just has to step up the pace a bit.

[JawJaw]

46. ReganBooks

ReganBooks is an imprint of Harper Collins (Murdoch!)

So yeah, "propaganda machine slime" fits the bill..

[jonnyblitz]

27. I remember that book!!

:puke:

[rocktivity]

18. Sammon, Gannon

That makes his name easy for Bush to remember. So let's start a "Gannon Sammon" meme! We can have a Gannon Of The Day award! We can say that such-and-such a reporter "did a Gannon" or "Gannoned" a Repub speaker!

:headbang:
rocknation

On edit: Hooray--I've finally figured out how this is done! Thanks, Nothing Without Hope!

[Nothing Without Hope]

23. I like your idea of a "Gannon/Sammon" meme!

And I've aleady started using a new verb, Gannoning, for doing what JimmyJeff did in the WH press room. (We could use it for his other jobs too, but that would be confusing.)

Yes, we definitely need to keep the association of Gannongate and WH propaganda alive in all the ways we can. The WH is trying to bury the whole thing and the Poodle Press (another of my introductions, since "Corporate Media" is less fun, doesn't convey their complicity, and includes the actual journalist Keith Olbermann) appears to be lying down for a nap as ordered.

We need to use and publicize good framing names for these neocon tools!

[allalone]

13. I spotted that too

I thought oh here's the new jeff.

[Northern Experiment]

19. This line is hilarious!!!

"Frankly, you wouldn't be doing your job if you didn't occasionally lay out the gentle criticism."

[grumpy old fart]

20. Picture of the Toady:

[Nothing Without Hope]

21. Thanks! He looks surprisingly human for such a shameless amphibian

(toad). Maybe if he shaved his head he could make the blivet** pay even MORE attention to him! But then, maybe it wouldn't be the kind of attention he really wants...

And get a load of that one-sided smile -- he's got a well-developed smirk going there, they have a lot in common besides utter amorality.

[Nothing Without Hope]

28. Kick - we need to probe the Gannon/Sammons and follow their money n/t

[Carolab]

33. Check it out. Sammon defending Gannon.

http://mediacitizen.blogspot.com/

6:28am, Feb 11 Update: The right-wing message machine has shifted into overdrive in its efforts to spin the Gannon/Guckert scandal as a story about the "liberal media" ganging up to stifle the free speech of someone who doesn't share their view. Witness the carefully chorographed back and forth among conservo-pundits on last night's "Special Report" with Brit Hume. The right's master narrative is in play here, as mouthed by Bill Sammon: "Jeff asked openly conservative-leaning questions. What it comes down to is this rankled the White House press corps because most of them are liberal and ask questions from a liberal perspective." These pundits seem to think that repeating "liberal media" a million times over will somehow make it true.

Also, in this link:


Bill Sammon
Sunday, June 13, 2004

Bill Sammon is the White House correspondent for the Washington Times.

While at the Plain Dealer in Cleveland, Bill spent two years uncovering widespread corruption at the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections, prompting investigations into voter fraud that resulted in the ouster of top election officials from both political parties.

Bill was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for his investigative reporting for the Washington Times on illegal fundraising by the Teamsters and the Democratic Party. Bill spent much of the last two years covering the closest presidential race in history and was one of the first reporters to arrive in Tallahassee for the post-election standoff, never leaving until it was over.

Bill Sammon gave a speech last month on how the "historical significance" of the Bush administration is "misunderestimated":

http://www.ashbrook.org/events/lecture/2005/sammon.html

Pretty clear where that reference to Washington came from.

[Nothing Without Hope]

34. Very interesting. We need to keep pushing on Gannongate investigations

The right-wing message machine has shifted into overdrive in its efforts to spin the Gannon/Guckert scandal as a story about the "liberal media" ganging up to stifle the free speech of someone who doesn't share their view.

This is absolutely true and must be reversed. The two main reasons:

1. The suppression of an extremely important revelation about the propaganda machine and, I believe, about the use of covert dirty-tricks special agents by the WH. I also strongly suspect a blackmail-based scheme of coercing support of the Bush Cartel agenda; this may well have also been behind the 1989 Reagan/Bush41 gay hooker/WH scandal that was suppressed by that administration. (See more thoughts on this blackmail possibility: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=1609452)
   
   
2. The use of this lie as a talking point to drive planned suppression of the free internet.
   

You can see the "biased partisan bloggers bringing people down at the speed of light" meme at the very end of this excellent video montage on Gannongate - the whole 13 minutes is not to be missed if you have not yet seen it. (The Bush mouthpiece jabbering about partisan bloggers looks even MORE like a fool when he is seen at the end of this whole montage of news and satirical video clips. But this talking point is DANGEROUS for us.) It came out in late February but is still pretty much on point, except for the apparent disappearanced and choreographed suppression of the Gannongate scandal:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=1658261

I am also convinced we need to follow the connections of Moonie money - it's behind Sammons, has (and is?) financing the Bush family, and who knows what else.

[Carolab]

35. In his defense of Gannon, Sammon lies about not knowing who Eberle is.

Eberle wrote for The Washington Times. How could he NOT know him?

http://www.gopusa.com/commentary/bobby/bio.shtml

[Carolab]

36. More on the Gannon-Moon connection.

http://cannonfire.blogspot.com/2005/02/more-on-moon-connection-gannon-and.html

AND

http://cannonfire.blogspot.com/2005/02/bush-gay-prostitution-scandals.html

[Carolab]

37. A former Moon employee from Insight named to head Natl Press Club?

http://www.counterpunch.org/madsen01142003.html

"For twenty years, Moon's main policy laundering enterprise for his incessant influence-peddling has been The Washington Times, the money-losing newspaper he owns outright through New World Communications, Inc., the paper's parent publishing company. New World also owns Insight Magazine, The Middle East Times (based in Cairo), Zambezi Times (based in Lusaka, Zambia), newspapers in Uruguay and Canada, a textbook publishing company in Russia, and United Press International, the formerly well-respected wire service that fell on hard financial times and was bailed out by Moon's seemingly unlimited cash flows.

Next year, an Insight magazine reporter is poised to take over as President of the venerable National Press Club in Washington. Thus, in a presidential election year, a Moon employee will have influence on what politicians and candidates are selected for televised luncheon speeches carried by C-SPAN and other cable news networks. Democrats and Greens should be very wary. Some former Washington Times officials claim The Washington Times and its affiliates are so tied in with Moon's agenda, its reporters and staff should register with the Justice Department as foreign lobbyists under the Foreign Agents Registration Act."

I didn't know that. Who is it? Must be Sheila Cherry.

But look at an article she wrote on the dangers of e-voting...I'm confused.

http://www.insightmag.com/news/2003/01/21/National/HighTech.Voting.Raises.Questions-343233.shtml

[Nothing Without Hope]

38. Yeah, to these guys lies are nothing, what matters is

what you can get away with.

What a slimy bunch.

[Carolab]

39. Yeah. Check out these Sammon lies about Gore.

http://www.dailyhowler.com/h061801_1.shtml

This guy has written NUMEROUS books about Bush. He's had personal close contact with Rove and Rice. So did Eberle--has the distinction of having the only interview with Rove.

So Sammon doesn't know him, huh?

This guy has the right last name--cause something sure smells "fishy".

[Carolab]

40. What do we know about One-Up, a Delaware corporation?

http://www.trancenet.org/moonism/darkmoon.shtml

Pretorious was disturbed, too, by the way cash, brought to the United States by Asian members, would circulate through the Moon business empire as a way to launder it. The money would then go to support the Moon family's lavish life style or be diverted to other church projects. At the center of the financial operation, Pretorious said, was One-Up Corp., a Delaware-registered holding company that owned Manhattan Center and other Moon enterprises including New World Communications, the parent company of The Washington Times. "Once that cash is at the Manhattan Center, it has to be accounted for," Pretorious said. "The way that's done is to launder the cash. Manhattan Center gives cash to a business which owns restaurants. ... that business needs to pay illegal aliens. ... which then pays some back to the Manhattan Center for 'services rendered.' The rest goes to One-Up and then comes back to Manhattan Center as an investment." Hyo Jin Moon did not respond to interview requests sent through his divorce lawyer and the church. Church officials also were unwilling to discuss Hyo Jin's case. But Hyo Jin was forced to produce documents and discuss his financial predicament in the bankruptcy proceedings.

More at this link:
http://www.consortiumnews.com/Print/2004/090704.html

[Carolab]

41. Clearly, Bush owes Moon

http://www.perkel.com/politics/moonies/bush.htm

[Nothing Without Hope]

42. This is incredible stuff, Carolab! Thank you!

My new file on Bush/Moon/corruption/poodle press is getting a lot thicker thanks to you.

I've started a new thread on the Poodle Press, first in the Media Forum, but that didn't go very far. So I'm trying again with the GD-Politics Forum here:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=1668099#1668116

In one of my posts in that thread I mention some of what you have found, crediting you (of course) and linking back to this thread.

I sure hope people take note of this and start aggressively following the money trail.

[Carolab]

44. NWH, have you seen this?

http://www.iapprovethismessiah.com/

[Nothing Without Hope]

45. Wow, Carolab! A whole blog of investigative journalism on Moon!!

This is a real find. Moon and his money are in the middle of some very shady stuff in addition to owning the RW rag the Washington Times. Amazing how many self-avowed super-Christians in the blivet** administraion have gone out of their way to show him deference, as in that bizarre coronation ceremony.


Thanks for digging up all this dirty gold. It's all pieces in an ugly, secret puzzle that affects us all.

[Nothing Without Hope]

43. Kick n/t

[Name removed]

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