MoDo: High Anxiety in the Mile High City

hillwatch2008 — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 12:25:48 +0000

Maureen Dowd; NY Times; August 27, 2008:

. . . a lot of bitter Clinton associates, fund-raisers and supporters wandering the halls, spewing vindictiveness, complaining of slights, scheming about Hillary’s roll call and plotting trouble . . .

Half of House Dems may vote Hillary at DNC

hillwatch2008 — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 12:15:01 +0000

From Politico:

Rep. Loretta Sanchez says she’s happy for the chance to vote for Hillary Rodham Clinton at the Democratic National Convention — and she predicts that as many as half of the Democrats in the House could join her.

Just how many former Clinton supporters will vote for the former first lady during the symbolic first ballot is anybody’s guess, but each of them will be called upon to do so — whether they want to or not.

Hillary Says She Will Free Delegates To Vote, Maybe For Her

hillwatch2008 — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 07:58:27 +0000

The New York Observer; Aug. 25, 2008

Hillary Clinton is still sending mixed messages.

Speaking at a press conference this morning following a breakfast with the New York delegation at the Sheraton hotel in Denver, during which called on her supporters to support Barack Obama, she said she would release her delegates to vote for Obama on Wednesday and would vote for Obama herself. But Clinton also argued that her delegates should have the chance to vote for her during Wednesday’s convention roll call. . . . But when asked by the Observer why so many New York elected officials and delegates, as recently as yesterday afternoon, still expressed confusion about who they should vote for on Wednesday, and whether she shouldn’t have offered clearer and earlier guidance to them, Mrs. Clinton grew more animated. Read more —>

Delegates being squeezed as you read this

hillwatch2008 — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 23:32:48 +0000

Democratic delegates feel pressure: ‘Support Hillary’ troops push hard for floor vote

By Bartholomew Sullivan, Memphis Commercial Appeal
Wednesday, August 20, 2008

WASHINGTON — A massive e-mail and Internet campaign is under way aimed at derailing the nomination of Barack Obama and making Hillary Rodham Clinton the Democratic Party’s standard bearer next week at the national convention in Denver.

“It’s downright nasty,” said Memphis superdelegate and City Council member Myron Lowery, who shared dozens of the messages he has received with The Commercial Ap peal.

“I think it’s divisive for the ‘Support Hillary’ campaign to continue at this time.” . . . Most of the messages Lowery has received from across the country come from Hillary supporters making the case that she won more votes in the primaries, that she won bigger states, that Obama won states that won’t vote Democratic in November and that she is the only “elect-able” Democrat. Read more —>

The writing is on the wall: political ambush on August 27th.

hillwatch2008 — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 23:11:43 +0000

Will Bower, PUMA co-founder, on the Sean Hannity radio show, August 25, 2008:

“I personally am voting for John McCain IF Hillary Clinton is not the nominee.”

Senator Clinton will be the Democratic Presidential Nominee

hillwatch2008 — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 02:54:31 +0000

Senator Clinton’s Plan to Purloin

her Party’s Presidential Nomination

PART I

Hillary Clinton has schemed for months to out-maneuver Barack Obama. It appears likely she will depart the Democratic convention in Denver with her party’s nomination for the presidency. Barack Obama is about to walk into a political ambush, and will leave Denver defeated. Clinton has been careful to conceal her tracks, but a close examination of the record reveals a remarkable story. This is not a simple story, or a pattern which immediately become apparent. But if you invest the time to read all the research assembled here, this pattern will become evident. In order to understand the nature of Mrs. Clinton’s machinations, and to realize that John McCain just wasted tens of millions of dollars attacking the wrong candidate, we first need to ask and answer three questions:

l Who is Larry Johnson?

        l Who are his associates?

                l Who does Larry Johnson work for?

But the real reason for Obama’s extraordinary freakout is that he fears the release of the videotape, reported here, of Michelle Obama in the pulpit of Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s church railing against “whitey.” And we don’t mean Whitey Ford. Four Republican sources have told me that the tape exists. I’ve also been informed that Karl Rove and his allies have a copy of it and are using it to raise funds for independent expenditure groups. The tape, I’m told, will be disclosed as the GOP October Surprise. It’s a ticking time bomb.

And I’ve learned that a right-wing Republican billionairehas put a $1 million bounty on the video. He doesn’t want John McCain to win, like a number of conservatives, and thinks Obama is a pathetically weak candidate. The billionaire wants that video released now. -Larry Johnson, posted May 19, 2008 on his NoQuarter blog.

I confirmed today that several teams/individuals visited Jakarta during the last six months to gather up critical documents regarding Barack. It is amazing what money can buy. The information includes details of how Barack made his way to Pakistan. Oh! Did I mention there have been similar efforts underway in Pakistan. There are several lessons and warnings in the John Edwards affair for Obama. First and foremost, you cannot hide your past.

Did I also mention how small Hawaii is? Republican operatives, with help from their own island backers, have unearthed critical information on Obama and are just biding their time until after the convention to drop it on him. Such as? Having a birth certificate that lists you as Barry Soetoro. -Larry Johnson, posted August 9, 2008 on his NoQuarter blog.

By Frank S. Bacon

The postings above, by far-Left operative Larry Johnson, lay bare a host of undercurrents, a full understanding of which is necessary to comprehend political events about to unfold in the days immediately ahead. Note the date of the first post, 18 days prior to Hillary Clinton’s concession in the primary battle for the Democratic presidential nomination. It was one of the last-ditch efforts made to help Clinton pull ahead of Obama. The post wounds Obama, while it distances both Clinton and McCain from the incendiary allegation, which Johnson had previously laid at the doorstep of “Republican operatives.” The second posting, made 16 days prior to the start of the Democratic convention, ratchets up the damage to Obama, and again lays the blame on the doorstep of those wascally Weepublicans. These are not the first such postings by Johnson, and as we shall see, he has made a career of operating in the muddy undercurrents of American politics.

We will return to these two postings later, after examining some of the history of the man. This examination will answer the first two questions above: who he is, and who his friends are. After doing so we can then speculate as to who employs Mr. Johnson, the answer to which is transparently obvious: Hillary Clinton. We will reveal a massive underground effort to benefit one candidate, and destroy the electoral chances of another. Oh, and Larry, if you happen to read this: at the time of the first posting you were reported to have promised to release a copy of the alleged Michelle Obama “whitey” tape on June 3, 2008 at 9:00AM. We’re still waiting. We don’t know if you overslept that day, but a lot of people are still interested, if you happen to have a copy you could spare.

Who is Larry Johnson?

A brief Internet search reveals all anyone needs to know about former CIA agent Larry Johnson, whose career since his days of government employment (which ended during the Clinton administration) has been one of associating with the most radical elements of the Democratic party, with what used to be known as the far Left, prior to that wing’s takeover of the party apparatus. Johnson hails from the Noam Chomsky wing of the party, and his post-government career has been one of alliances with the usual suspects on the Left of the Left. Accuracy in Media lumps him together with a cast of fellow Hillary Clinton travellers, including such serial conspiracy nuts and fabricators as Joe Wilson and, everybody’s favorite psych case, Lyndon Larouche.

How altogether odd that a man who unabashedly admits to working at the highest levels of the Democratic Party (and who gave one of their 2005 responses to President Bush’s weekly radio address) should more than once have claimed Republican operatives were his sources for exceptionally incendiary allegations against Mrs. Clinton’s opponent, Barack Obama. Operatives from opposed parties do not normally work in concert. He clearly uses this transparent ruse to deflect the focus away from himself and those he represents. But note WHEN Johnson suddenly obtains high-level Republican sources: afterhis patron Mrs. Clinton begins losing to Obama. Prior to this point in time, Johnson has nothing nice to say about Republicans, nor is there any reason to believe he associates with them.

Who does Larry Johnson work for?

There is one clear thread connecting all of Larry Johnson’s efforts with those of his blogger cohorts. Each benefits his patrons, the Clintons. Prior to the ascension of Obama, those Johnson attacked were individuals opposed by Senator Clinton, exclusively on the Republican side of the ledger. Individuals such as Karl Rove. Once Obama posed a threat to Hillary, Obama then became the central focus o f Johnson’s aim. Only two words are needed to describe the man: Hillary operative. An additional pair close the book on him: zero credibility.

Larry Johnson’s CIA career lasted from 1985 to 1989, followed by a stint at the State Department’s office of Counter Terrorism, where he served as deputy director, until his departure in 1993. Johnson is clearly not the most stable fellow, and is prone to profanity-laced tantrums. Johnson’s two partners in Berg Associates, LLC (an international security consulting firm, of which Johnson is CEO) are both former DEA agents, including Robert Nieves, the former DEA chief of international operations. The firm’s associates include former high-ranking CIA, DEA and Secret Service agents. Berg Associates is a nest of spooks. Johnson is one of the members of the small, radical Left organization, Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity . VIPS is closely connectedwith Alexander Cockburn’s CounterPunch. CounterPunch regularly compares George W. Bush to Hitler, and Cockburn is an unabashed Marxist.

Many maintain the term “former” CIA agent to be an oxymoron. Johnson boasts openly of his continued contacts with intelligence sources, undoubtedly not an idle boast. His firm is a contractor for American intelligence agencies, including presumably the CIA. Should the Clinton operation need to call on the skills and knowledge of active members of the intelligence community, there is no doubt these would be made available, and Johnson’s firm could provide much of the heavy lifting. Do not think for a minute that they have not done so. The Clintons’ M.O. has been to co-opt various insiders in the judicial, law enforcement and intelligence communities, so as to be able to use these people in their various dirty tricks operations. If anyone could get the dirty details on Obama’s citizenship history, it is the Clintons.

The Road to Denver

As Hillary Clinton’s team struggles with how best to leak out the damning case they have assembled against Obama (including allegations of a constitutional ineligibility to run for President -based on citizenship issues, as well as numerous other allegations which deeply wound his electability), they fear one thing: the backlash from Black voters should Obama be denied the Democratic nomination in Denver. Clinton can not be elected without the Black vote, and her only hope of doing so is to lay the blame at the feet of “Republican operatives.” The road to Denver is lined with Clinton operatives wearing surgical gloves to keep their hands clean, while directing the flow of traffic through the potholes they have strategically positioned along the route to knock the wheels off Obama’s bus.

Unfortunately for Mrs. Clinton, her team has already tipped its hand, and revealed they are the ones in possession of the Obama citizenship dossier (if it actually exists, and is not all simply a rumor). They violated the cardinal rule of political dirty tricks: do not show your cards, ever.

Who was the blabbermouth? William Jefferson Clinton. Let us not forget that it was President Clinton who first injected race into the campaign, beginning with the South Carolina primary. Blacks would have to have extraordinarily short memories to forget this history so soon after the fact, and have their focus of anger directed toward McCain, should Hillary wrest the nomination away in Denver. The McCain campaign has scrupulously avoided any such efforts to polarize the presidential race based on race, and it will be interesting to observe how the Clinton machine plans to blame his people for the potential demise of Obama. Or more correctly, we already know what their plan is: to blame the Republicans. What is unclear is how they might credibly accomplish this.

Timeline Reveals a Hidden Campaign

A timeline is helpful to sort out the twisted tale of Larry Johnson and his associated Clinton campaign operatives. Observe how the Clinton campaign nurtured the establishment and growth of a massive network of organizations (including 527 campaign financing vehicles), web sites and bloggers, all focused on the sole goal of insuring Senator Clinton’s election as the 44^th President of the United States. The Clinton campaign utilized existing venues and actors, and fabricated new ones when needed. A pattern appears: various individuals emerge at various times along the road to Denver, each with a significant role to play in advancing the conspiracy to wound Obama’s electability. These players may sometimes exhibit minor disagreements over the evidence assembled against Obama. When this occurred, they were quick to point out how these minor disagreements proved their independence of thought and action. They doth protest too much. These individual actors may leave the stage once their part ends, but the overall conspiracy steadily advances.

The conspiracy operated along three separate fronts:

1)One front was designed to maintain a chatter of background noise, propagating a steady drumbeat of anti-Obama information, with occasional attacks on other candidates (such as John Edwards) who might pose a viable threat to Mrs. Clinton.

2)The second front sought to make a compelling case that Senator Clinton received more popular votes in the Democratic state primaries, but corrupt tactics by the Obama campaign caused her to lose her fair share of the delegates as a result of manipulation of the caucus process, effectively overiding the will of the majority of Democratic primary voters.

3) But the third front is revealed to be the principal raison d’etreof this entire effort. That front’s objective was to build a case against the Constitutional eligibility (under Article II) of Obama’s campaign for the presidency. This case questioned both his place of birth and citizenship status, claiming both as being disqualifying factors. This entire effort culminated on August 21, 2008, on the eve of the convention, with Attorney Philip Berg’s filing of a federal lawsuit in Philadelphia (before a judge appointed by Mrs. Clinton’s husband).

In the early stages of this conspiracy, the various components and actors were unclear to almost all. Many on the Right were used by this conspiracy to further its objectives. It is only in retrospect that the truth becomes clear, and patterns emerge upon close examination. Whether a compelling legal case against Obama’s Constitutional eligibility for the Presidency has been established is not the point of this article. Clearly, massive doubt lingers over his eligibility, beginning with his refusal to produce valid proof of birth. Our goal here is to question the motives and allegiances of many of those raising these eligibility doubts.

Berg’s lawsuit marked the piece d’ resistanceof the Clinton campaign’s efforts to muddy the legal waters and pave the way for her victory in Denver. Many of the Democratic delegates are experiencing severe buyer’s remorse, and Clinton’s objective is to halt the sale before it occurs. Similar to a real estate transaction aborted due to a clouded title, Obama has now become too great a political liability for many Democrats to invest with their nomination. The legal challenge by Mr. Berg is not intended to accomplish anything other than muddying the waters prior to Denver. The legal farce of this filing is well analyzed here. The courts (particularly one ruled by a Clinton appointee) are ill-suited for a swift resolution of this lawsuit, precisely the reason it was filed.

Anyone examining the amount of time and money expended in the effort to undermine Obama in the period between the end of the primary season and the Democratic convention in Denver, can only conclude that Senator Clinton plans to make a concerted effort to obtain her party’s nomination. A massive network of sites, organizations, researchers, video editors, bloggers, etc. was not assembled without good reason. The reason can only be that Clinton has schemed all along to take the nomination away from Obama in Denver. What other possible conclusion can be reached? Should she succeed, there is a high probability she will go on to defeat McCain in the general election. Conservatives (and McCain) will have been caught completely off guard by this result, and are unprepared to wage an effective campaign against the most dangerous threat to our freedoms and lives that we face. Obama is but a vapid, racist, hate-filled, nincompoop, communist and flake with zero chance of winning the November election. His policies are nearly identical to Senator Clinton’s, yet he and his equally incompetent staff are simply unable to package them in the manner that Hillary Clinton has been able to, and she has now positioned herself to be able to run as a centrist moderate in the general election. Clinton despises America, the West and Israel, while admiring communism and Islam, just as much as Obama does. The difference is that she effectively conceals these beliefs, and she can again inflict so much damage upon the world should she again gain power. While the policies of the first two Clinton administrations led to the strengthening of all our enemies throughout the world, there is no telling what sort of havoc she could inflict upon the free peoples of the world should she win the November election. America, is only so resilient, and a third Clinton administration could well mark the unalterable end of the freedoms we hold so dear. Any conservatives who would celebrate the vanquishing by Clinton of the vapid Obama/Biden duo is a fool. The Democrats would be rotating incompetence out of their lineup, in exchange for ruthless efficiency. The timeline which reveals the Machiavellian nature of Clinton’s concealed efforts over recent months follows below.

2003 Larry Johnson begins posting of the Daily Kos, the Internet voice of the Radical Left.

July 6, 2005 Johnson begins the NoQuarter blog.

July 8, 2005 Johnson introduces his readers to a pair of additional bloggers posting on that site, the first of a number who will do so.

May 13, 2006 Larry Johnson’s blog falsely announces: Rove Indicted – Frog March the Bastard For much of the initial two years of NoQuarter’s existence, the blog was focused on the Joe Wilson/Valerie Plame affair (two old CIA buddies of Larry Johnson), the Iraq war and all things Bush/Cheney.

November 20, 2007 Johnson’s first blog posting focused on Barack Obama, made soon after Obama appeared on the Clinton campaign’s political radar as a viable threat to gain the Democartic presidential nomination. Johnson’s post asks: Why is Obama in bed with Karl Rove?

December 12, 2007 Three weeks later, NoQuarter’s second blog posting focused on Obama appears: Obama Talks the Talk, But Where’s the Walk?

December 18, 2007 Less than one week later, as Obama’s star rises in the polls, the third posting attacking him appears: Will Obama run an Oprah foreign policy?

December 20, 2007 Only two days later, we read the next anti-Obama post on NoQuarter, While Illinois’ and the Nation’s Veterans Suffer, Obama Campaigns. It becomes clear that the Clinton campaign his now assigned staff to dig up dirt on Obama, and this posting is one of the first fruits of that effort.

December 21, 2007 Obama now rates two postings on NoQuarter, one by the master fiction author himself, Joe Wilson. From here on, now that it had become obvious to the Clinton campaign that Obama was the principal obstacle between Hillary and the Oval Office, NoQuarter’s principal focus is to derail the Obama campaign, with various unrelated articles posted to divert attention from the singular nature of the web site’s mission. From that date until the primaries end, hardly a day goes by that there are not at least two or three anti-Obama hit pieces featured on the blog.

(to be continued in Part II )

She’s Baaack

hillwatch2008 — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 02:28:35 +0000

What this really means ladies and gentlemen, my humble opinion, my personal opinion: Hillary Clinton hasn’t given up. She’s on her way back, she’s going to put it to the Democrats that they can’t nominate Obama, given these questions. And next week’s going to be one of the most interesting weeks of the year.”

-Rodger Hedgecock August 22, 2008

Hillary Watch