Passport-gate Update

Remember the night Keith Olbermann thought he had another Watergate? In a fit of hilarity, before he could get his special 'special comment' written about the worstest worst person in the world, which was likely a toss-up between Condi Rice, Bush, Rove or Bill O'Reilly (he's always in play) the story dynamically transformed into contractors accessing all three major candidates' passport records in the State Dept, spluttering the balloon in deflated circles around his neck.

The initial snoopers involved worked for two State contractors--John O. Brennan's Analysis Corp and Phil Nolan's Stanley Associates. Brennan was a big Obama supporter who later became a leading candidate for CIA Director until the nutroots viciously took him out, leaving him a mere intelligence czar, and Phil Nolan was a big Hillary supporter. Sounds like at least a "friendly" rivalry there.

Anyway, the DoJ has been slowly busting employees who gained unauthorized access and today comes news of the fifth employee's takedown. Here's the DOJ release naming names.

Of course this story has overlapped into the birth cert conspiracy, with the general gist being the snoopers were trying to sanitize, or as Ken Timmerman put it, 'cauterize' the records to keep anyone from seeing copies of original birth certs or other stuff possibly in the files. Publicity hounds like Orly Taitz have also made hay with the Lt. Harris murder twist, which does give the whole thing a kind of Robert Ludlum feel, although on deeper inspection, not so much.

The deeper story might be the fraud ring Harris was connected with featuring moles in the State Department selling access. This was all made more stark by today's news of the swiping of information from millions of credit cards. From the Wash Times on Harris:

Mr. Harris also said the fraud ring submitted credit-card applications using the names and “identifying information” of the persons listed on the passport applications, and that a postal service employee then would intercept the cards before they were delivered to the appropriate residences.

Better not let Obama hear about such postal employees when making future comparisons to government health care. As to Harris' death there seem to be three possibilities: 1) he committed suicide, 2) he was rubbed out by former thug pals or by some thug passing by, or 3) some political black ops red team eliminated him. Those who believe Timmerman and his anonymous insiders will undoubtedly believe number 3. Others, including me, will need more proof.

FURTHERMORE 8/18/09

This is the stupidest thing you'll see all day. Or all week. Or all month.

Waiting for Outrage

The muted reaction from all the strict constitutionalists over the hacking of Sarah Palin's email account continues to thrill and amaze.

After all, the last time one of the candidates suffered a perceived invasion of privacy the Lord of Flies reacted briskly:



Team Obama was outraged until it became known that McCain and Clinton's passports were also viewed and the CEO of the contractor involved was an Obama adviser.

This story seems to be fast heading towards a prank explanation. Were the shoe on the other foot we'd likely be enduring comparisons to secret prisons and NSA terrorist spying programs along with calls for special commissions and perhaps even a few frogmarches. Rove would be blamed. Alas, the McCain/Palin team reacted responsibly, unlike the immediate reaction from Obama. Perhaps examples we can depend on.

Where in the world?

Very befuddling. Let's start with this for some context:



Just marvel at how those tools try to make the story into Watergate II. We later learned the company involved in the breach was run by an Obama adviser. What in the world would Obama operatives be looking for in his passport file? That question was asked and never answered.

With that background we now have this and this:

Their refusal to produce a birth certificate has stoked some of the speculation:

Amidst the uncertainty why would Obama refuse to produce his birth certificate? It could end this nonsense as quickly as McCain's status was resolved.

Chances are it has to do with an embarrassment factor rather than an ineligibility for president factor--no way the DNC lets him run otherwise. And if indeed that's the case--an embarrassment (such as polygamy, name, etc) there's no story here. It's impossible to embarrass a Democrat on social issues.

Passport-gate?

Let me say this upfront--I have no news to add here, only a comment about the crack in the space-time continuum over at Olby's house over this passport story. They might have set a new record for asking "what did Bush know and when did he know it"? Speaking of crack, Olby turned to his crack team of fair and balanced contributors consisting of Howard Fineman, David Shuster and Andrea Mitchell. Keith is already giving us a range from Watergate to nothing, stressing the Watergate end. And the Obama folks are already blaming Bush.

The panel talked often about George HW Bush being accused of accessing information about Clinton in 1992, rather obviously trying to suggest son was acting like father without once mentioning Hillary's FBI filegate scandal in 1993. Think about it--who gains more from accessing Obama's files, a lame duck president or a desperate Hillary Clinton?

This should be interesting.

MORE 3/20/08

Well, since Keith and crew are spinnin' and speculatin' like wild, let's join him! Why would the Bush administration want to leak this story NOW? Barack is on the hot seat with Wright, et al, so they pick this time to torpedo the worst story on Obama to date? Make no sense. It makes more sense for Barack's campaign to have picked today to bring this out somehow. After all, they sure had their statements ready and waiting to go..

MORE 3/21/08

What's in a passport file? Not much, according to Jeralyn Merritt. Be sure to read to the end where she ponders whether Obama operatives might have been the source for the reporter who subsequently contacted State officials for comment and broke the story. Of course, she would say that, being a Clinton supporter and typical white person.