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"As democracy is perfected, the office of  president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron."
- H.L. Mencken

Recommended reading

We gather information, on a daily basis, from many websites. There are a number of publications that are well worth viewing for their intelligent reporting of national and international news. All of those sources, listed below, are daily newspapers with the exception of the Asia Times. The latter is a very well written site with in-depth articles that are worth reading.

The New York Times:  www.nytimes.com
The Washington Post: www.washingtonpost.com
The Christian Science Monitor: www.csmonitor.com
The Guardian: www.guardian.co.uk
Seattle Post-Intelligencer:  www.seattlepi.nwsource.com
Asia Times www.atimes.com

The Voice of the White House: Special Edition: the Bulldog and the Closet Queens

‘’The information contained in this article is confidential, and it may not be intended for your use.

If you are not the intended recipient, any use, disclosure, copying or retention of this document is unauthorized.’

(Note: This is something that people with pretentious websites proclaiming their supreme intelligence love to stick at the head of their mawkishness in the hopes that readers will be impressed with the gravity of the contents. The contents generally consist of a number of weird conspiracy theories coupled with erratic but very loud comments of the owner of the website. Why people are convinced that the rest of the world is interested in their views on anything other than their immediate suicide, escapes me…..)

February 27, 2005: “The Gannon story is causing spastic colon here in the Baboon Palace. They are running around like terrified chipmunks, calling all their friends in the media to keep a lid on this and then calling other friends in terror lest they all get “outed” by the very possible spilling of the beans by Guckert the Whore. There is no question that official Washington, and especially the top levels of the GOP are riddled with closet queens who are the most vicious people I have ever seen. People who think the Neo cons are bad don’t know these GOP faggots. Joe Stalin would have loved to work with them. Note please that I have files and files about these fudge-packers and they will all be outed, mark my word.

Now, I have taken the liberty of raiding both the Internet and your last issue to put together a sort of ongoing drama of the Fall of James Guckert, aka  ‘Jim Gannon’ White House reporter, far right minion, friend of many of the Washington elite, a well-advertised and aggressive homosexual prostitute and tax scofflaw. I have a great deal of concrete information on the subject of very widespread and high-level homosexual activities inside the Beltway but first, let me start my campaign with a discussion of their famous new poster boy.

James Guckert Swings A Mean Purse

Exposed as a male prostitute who advertises his sexual services openly on the Internet, James Guckert, aka Jeff Gannon, press maven, friend of top White House personnel, respected and addressed by President Bush, Mr. Guckert has been ousted from his cushy job in the seat of power and has become the Monica Lewinsky of the Bush Presidency.

No one gives up power voluntarily and one thinks of the old Roman epigram “Yesterday, the village lothario: Today, arbiter of life and death: Tomorrow, keeper of the public latrines.” Guckert rose quickly, possibly with the help of Viagra because he is obviously older than his proclaimed 32 years, and fell just as quickly. The paid employee of an ultra right wing Texas GOP front, he quickly became the darling of the President and his top aides, was given press passes to the White House, and although his profession was hardly a secret inside the Beltway, gloried in getting the highest level secret documents from his good friends next to Bush and was singled out by the bemused President for special questions.

To say that the White House was shocked when it was soon discovered that he was an ageing male hustler with great ambitions and a considerable income from selling nude pictures of muscular young men to the public would only be to reinforce the theory that the top level of U.S. officials were completely unaware of the pending Arab attack on the World Trade Center.

Removed from his power base, Guckert/Gannon has taken to the Internet to plead his case but this time our hero is playing it straight. (There is always the thrill of doing something for the first time!)

Here is the Guckert/Gannon website that sets forth both his fury at being tossed out of the White House like a dog that pissed on the floor and his monumental ego. These following rants sound like something concocted by failed British revisionist, David Irving, who used to put out a pathetic website as well, that informed dozens of people about his daily meals, pets, bowel habits and favorite television programs. I have put my comments in italics.

Jeff Gannon

A Voice of the New Media (New Media? What’s this all about? The Gay Whore Press? Or is Guckert revealing a terrible secret about our media and its growing connection to the gay community?)

So feared by the Left it had to take me down! (A lot of people have taken poor, ageing Jim down. Jim obviously likes to go down. Pictures are available on this one.)

About Me (Millions really care, James, they really do. Even now, Rush Limbaugh, overweight drug addict, has stopped taking his addictive pills and emerged from his daily stupor just to read, with eager anticipation, all about his close friend, Jeff the Marine Corps poster boy and spokesperson for the rabid right)

Bruised but not broken

I'm  baaaaaaack!  If you thought I was going to slink away - then you don't know much about me.  Someone still has to battle the Left and now that I've emerged from the crucible, I'm stronger than before. (My God, what an egomaniac! This sleazy male whore thinks that he is a Saint George battling the dragon of the liberals! Jeff sweetie, there is only one Saint George in the White House and he occupies the Oval Office. Along with Fat Karl Rove, the co-ruler and your very good friend and supporter. It’s better that he supports you than you try to support him. You’d get a hernia trying that one. Or you could try a fork lift)

Despite all the pleas from the Left to go over to the 'dark side' and expose the 'corrupt Bush administration' simply isn't going to happen.  My faith and my ideology are rock solid. (I’m sure hundreds of liberals are in touch with our Studly Jarhead, begging him to go over to some dark side and tell the world which top Washington brass he has let fudge-pack him or which Senator or Congressman has made use of one of Jeff’s adorable young studs. His faith and ideology may be rock solid and as a typical poster boy for the far right, Jeff is a doll, but as far as stating he is ‘rock hard,’ poor Jeff just can’t stop advertising his shop-worn goods. Is he looking for some wealthy Republican to discover his ‘rock hard faith?’ At his age, Jeff could easily become a poster boy for Viagra as well as the Republican Right.)

Still, the last few weeks have been difficult for my family and my associates.  To them I offer my apology and gratitude for their support.

In regard to the allegations about my personal life, I have been advised by my attorneys not to comment on any of the details pending the outcome of any possible legal action I might pursue.  Therefore, I won't be discussing any of that stuff here. (Your family? Are you married? To a woman? Are there fights about who wears the mascara this week? If you actually found a woman to marry you, how does the beard feel about your putting up your sagging body all over the internet for a grand a weekend? Tell me, Jeff, do you pay taxes on your earnings? Could your chubby johns take their weekend romps with you as a charitable deduction? Are you planning to sue people or only threatening? Truth is proof against libel so be very careful where you put your feet, sweetheart. I have enough material on you and the rest of your tribe here inside the Beltway to thoroughly discredit, if not permanently ruin, not only the current administration but a significant part of the senior bureaucracy as well. As a matter of fact, why not file a lawsuit against people like me and then, when you are under oath at a deposition, we can present all kinds of evidence and force you to reveal the degree and extent of your activities? And if you won’t answer the questions asked under oath, the court will have you jailed until you do. Think of all the fun you can have in the slammer! You might never want to get out. Go get Sid Flores, Shopping Mall Lawyer, and cut loose!)

Current Column

Fear and Loathing in the Press Room

For the last two years, the Old Media figures at the White House thought of me as a gadfly, a right-winger with an agenda, harmless, someone to be ignored.  From time to time there were grumbles among some of the reporters and one or two confrontations, but there was never a serious attempt to remove me from their midst.  During my tenure I developed some good friends there who welcomed the refreshing perspective I brought to the briefings and respected my courage for asking the questions that I did.(You asked the questions you were given to ask. Let’s not try to take the credit for this. The one you did ask was phony as hell and was so bad, and so obviously a plant, that you attracted the attention that exposed you for what you are.)

It wasn’t until I asked “The Question” that everything abruptly changed.  Initially, my colleagues had no reaction to the query posed to President Bush.  It wasn’t until Rush Limbaugh drew attention to it that there was any interest at all.  But that was enough to get a liberal group dedicated to attacking conservatives in the media to mobilize.  It was horrified that the relentless string of hostile and a few downright disrespectful questions had been broken.  My greater sin in their eyes, however was that I dared to suggest that two Senate Democratic leaders held an illogical view of the economy’s weakness and the strength of Social Security.  (I think your sin, Angela, is that your hubris got the better of your poop chute and you thought you could play the role of right wing plant in the White House press corps at the same time you were turning sleazy tricks in DC motels. You weren’t exposed because you were so brilliant but because of your profession. The Bush White House has been a great advocate of pure, Christian family life, has attacked gay marriage, abortion and demanded the return to the wonderful old days when most babies died in childbirth, unions were forbidden and enslaved blacks worked in the cotton fields. Now it is coming out that an ageing male prostitute, working for a lunatic  far-right Texas Republican flack group, is not only turning tricks with senior staffers but acting as Bush’s shill at press conferences..)

February 25, 2005

I have to hand it to John Byrne at RAWSTORY.  He must have an inside connection with the Democrats on the Hill since he was the first to post a copy of the letter Sen. Dick Durbin has been passing around asking for an investigation of me.  Five Democratic Senators sign letter to Bush calling for Gannon inquiry  I see that one of the signatures affixed to the letter is none other than of John F. Kerry who has yet to put a pen to a Form 180 that would release rest of his military records. (Actually, there will be no official investigation of you, Angela, because you know too much about the private lives of a number of very senior Republicans. Look at Kenny Boy Lay. A stone swindler from the git- go, a friend of George Bush and someone who gave him huge sums of money before his fraud emporium caved in. Do you honestly think that Kenny Boy will ever be tried? Or you? If the American public knew what I know, and can easily prove, about the corruption and degeneracy at the top levels in the leadership of this country, there would be absolute hell to pay and the one thing the White House and a goodly part of Congress does not want, is to irritate you to the point where, in your rage at rejection, you could well out hundreds of America’s leaders. On the other hand, sweetheart, don’t let this go to your head. If you think you are going to return to the Oval office in glory, forget it. No one wants to be reminded of your existence and as you get older and flabbier, you will be reduced to turning tricks in nursing homes and trying to peddle your memoirs to the supermarket tabloids. This would result in a tragic traffic accident and three lines of type in the New York Times You mention Kerry’s military records. What about your own? Were you really ever in the Marine Corps? Was the Marine Corps ever in you? In the showers, of course. If you were a jar head, what kind of a discharge did you get? Would your medical records discuss the discharge? Were antibiotics necessary because of the discharge or was there also a trip to the proctologist?)

February 24, 2005

Daniel J. Phillips at the Biblical Christianity blog hits the nail on the head about what the Left has gained from Gannongate.  (Do you mean to tell me that the Christian Right is still sniffing around your raddled fundament? ‘Gannongate?’ I suppose that ’Guckertgate’ sounds too Iowa for the print media. All of this smacks of delusions of grandeur and reference.)

2:37pm

RAWSTORY reports that Senate Minority Leader Harry 'Soup Lines" Reid will join in the investigation of me.  He should be thanking me since I helped get him his promotion. (Ah, you helped someone get a promotion? What did it cost them? What did it cost you? A tube of Preparation H? Beltway rumor has it that both you and Fat Karl the Eunuch use that cream on your gums. You like to be called the Bulldog. How about The Pile Driver?)

11am

Ann Coulter slices and dices the hypocrites on the Left and their handmaidens in the Old Media.  (The weird Ann Coulter is a perfect foil to your activities. She is the bitter, beady-eyed maiden-lady type that used to accuse witches in Salem and smirk when they were hanged.)

February 23, 2005

Not to be outdone by his Democratic colleague Rep. Louise Slaughter, Rep. Maurice Hinchey told CNN's Judy Woodruff that he believes Karl Rove is behind the phony CBS documents and that I should be investigated because I am not "a legitimate press person."  (At last, some truth emerges. You are right about Fat Karl the Eunuch but what about the Valerie Plame documents you leaked to Novak? Fat Karl is too cute to do this himself and now he had plausible deniability. Do you honestly think that your former friends will either defend or protect you? You are the political kiss of death to them and I did speak of an unfortunate traffic accident before. You should hire some young stud to start your car in the morning. After he wakes up, finishes serving you and fixes your breakfast that is.)

9:51am

John Byrne at RAWSTORY reports that Sen. Dick Durbin is spearheading the political revenge on a reporter that helped bring the beloved Tom Daschle down.  The letter was leaked to the 'journalist' who operates an online news service, no wait, political propaganda site. (Look what Lady Gannon hath wrought. Did you and your fudge-packing friends and partners in crime think you could keep getting away with spreading evil lies about your perceived enemies? This appears to be a classical case of karma or the biter bit.)

Michael Isikoff at Newsweek helps me serve notice on the Lefties in a short blurb, Gannon's Enemies List.  It sure does save the cost of sending all those certified letters. (‘Enemies List?’ Listen, Bulldog, you are on a number of lists but are you making a veiled threat here? Are you going to implicate this Senator, that judge, or this Presidential Aide as participants in your sordid, pseudo-macho sheet rumplings? Look what happened to the famous Todd Blodgett when he threatened to out his clients over at the Kennedy-Warren. The problem with creatures like yourself is that you think that you are using people when, in fact, you yourself are being used. Get used to bleak obscurity and go very quietly into that dark night or your former patrons and clients will take you for a very long ride on a very short pier, and the bottom-feeders can munch on your 8inch+ cock and oiled pecs)

February 16, 2005

Jonah Goldberg puts Gannongate in its proper perspective for National Review Oniline. (sic)  I don't like the chipmunk comparison, I think of myself more like a badger (Others think of you as quite another animal, hog breath.)

Is Dubya in the closet?   Won’t he come out and play with us?

February 27, 2005
http://www.capitolhillblue.com/artman/publish/article_6318.shtml
by Doug Thompson

Ah, the irony of it all. The administration of George W. Bush, easily the most homophobic president of modern times, deployed a homosexual escort and promoter of gay life styles as one of its “propaganda-as- journalism” shills.

James Dale Guckert, aka Jeff Gannon, infiltrated the White House press corps as a so-called journalist working for two GOP-backed web sites. He quit after some left-wing blogs outed him but – like most Washington scandals – the story gets juicier.

The bloggers revealed Guckert had registered a number of web site domain names with gay themes, including hotmilitarystud.com. Guckert admitted registering the names but claimed he never put up any web sites with gay themes.

Like so many who shill for Bush’s White House, Guckert is a liar.

Paul Leddy, a California Web designer, says Guckert contacted him in an America Online chat room in 1999 and contracted with him to create a gay escort web site, paying $200, plus $50 in monthly maintenance fees. Checks to pay the fees came from Bedrock Corp., a company also listed as the owner of Guckert’s blog, jeffgannon.com. Leddy says Gannon submitted nude photos of himself for posting on the site.

Another of Guckert’s web sites offered his services as a male escort for $200 an hour or $1200 a night. Guckert described himself as “military, muscular, masculine and discrete.” (His misspelling, not ours).

Guckert is also a tax scofflaw. Delaware court records show he failed to pay more than $20,700 in personal income tax from 1991 through 1994.

Bush’s minions saw Guckert as a valuable commodity, granting him access to classified documents, including the infamous memo that outed Ambassador (and Bush critic) Joseph Wilson’s wife, Valerie Palme, as a CIA operative. House Democrats are demanding a special investigator into that stunt.

Still unanswered is how Guckert became a poster child for an administration that preaches homosexuality is a sin and threatens the wrath of God on anyone who advocates gay lifestyles. We thought the holy rollers who have taken over the Republican Party only dropped to their knees in prayer.

Yet Guckert’s sexual preferences are not the story here (they just make it more interesting). Real concerns should be raised over increasing revelations on how the Bush administration uses paid propagandists disguised as journalists. From video press releases dressed up to look like real news stories to hundreds of thousands of dollars in payments to right-wing columnists to write favorable opinion pieces about the administration, the Bush administration proves it will stop at nothing to mislead the American public.

We once thought it impossible that anyone could top Bill Clinton’s ability to look the American public in the eye and lie like hell but Dubya makes Bubba look like a bumbling frat boy.

Bush lied to Congress, our allies and the American people about why we needed to invade Iraq. He lied again to Congress and the country about the true cost of his politically-motivated Medicare prescription plan. He lies repeatedly about when the Social Security system will run out of money. Recently disclosed audio tapes shows he lied (through omission) about his past drug use.

And, to promote his lies, Bush’s administration and backers deploy liars like James Guckert to pose, under an assumed name, as a journalist.

And were these political hacks are so desperate to find a shill they didn’t even bother to check his background?

Perhaps. Perhaps not.

Perhaps Bush, like other public homophobes, decries the gay life because of yet another secret in his sordid past. Maybe booze and cocaine wasn’t the only thing our President stuffed (or had stuffed…ed) into an available orifice.

GOP operative shuts down phony news web site

February 27, 2005,
http://www.capitolhillblue.com/artman/publish/article_6319.shtml
By Staff and Wire Reports

A Texas-based phony news Web site whose conservative connections touched off a White House media controversy has shut down "to reevaluate operations," according to a message posted on the site.

A spokeswoman for Talon News said the site closed because its founder, Bobby Eberle of Pearland, Texas, "can only take so much beating" over the page's political slant.

Talon, which could not immediately be reached for comment, came under fire after its White House reporter, who identified himself as Jeff Gannon, asked a politically loaded question at a White House press conference and was accused by critics of being used by the Bush administration to spread conservative propaganda.

Since then, Gannon, whose real name is James Guckert, has been linked to gay porn Web sites and prostitution, and photos of him naked have circulated on the Web.

Questions have been raised about how he was able to get coveted White House press credentials working for a little-known organization and working under a fake name, but the White House has denied giving him special treatment.

Talon News founder Eberle is a Republican who has another Web site called GOPUSA.com, which touts the Republican Party and conservative causes.

Talon News said in its message that the Web site would be redesigned and "a top-to-bottom review of staff and volunteer contributors" would be performed.

"The recent public focus on Talon News, while much of it malicious, has indeed brought some constructive elements to the surface," the message said.

Spokeswoman Jennifer Ohman was quoted by the Chronicle as saying the controversy had drawn strong criticism from Web site visitors.

"The attention by and large was negative. If anything it seemed to fuel the fire," she said.

Gannongate: It's Worse Than You Think

February 23, 2005
by Eric Boehlert
Salon.com

Bush's press office gave Jim Guckert access, even knowing his only credentials were from the blatantly partisan group GOPUSA.

When the press first raised questions about why Jim Guckert had been awarded access to the White House press room for two years running while he worked for Talon News, critics charged that Talon, with its amateurish standards and close working ties to Republican activists, did not qualify as a legitimate news organization. It turns out the truth is even stranger: Guckert was waved into the White House while working for an even more blatantly partisan organization, GOPUSA.

White House press secretary Scott McClellan originally told reporters that Guckert was properly allowed into press briefings because he worked for an outlet that "published regularly." But that's when the questions were about Talon. More recently McClellan offered up a new rationale. Asked by Editor and Publisher magazine how the decision was made to allow a GOPUSA correspondent in, McClellan said, "The staff assistant went to verify that the news organization existed." (Emphasis added.)

That, apparently, was the lone criterion the press office used when Guckert (aka Jeff Gannon) approached it in February 2003 seeking a pass for White House briefings. Not yet working for Republican-friendly Talon News, which came into existence in April 2003, Guckert, using an alias and with no journalism experience whatsoever, was writing on a voluntary basis for a Web site dedicated to promoting Republican issues. To determine whether Guckert would gain entrance to the press room, normally reserved for professional journalists working for legitimate, recognized and independent news organizations, the press office simply logged on to the Internet and confirmed that GOPUSA "existed," and then quickly approved Guckert's access. In a White House obsessed, at least publicly, with security and where journalists cannot even move between the White House and the nearby Old Executive Building without a personal escort, Guckert's lenient treatment was likely unprecedented. Yet, if there's one other person who did manage to receive the same type of kid-glove treatment from the White House press office, it was Guckert's boss at GOPUSA and later at Talon News, Bobby Eberle. A Texas-based Republican activist and a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 2000, Eberle founded Talon News after he became concerned that the name GOPUSA might appear to have a "built-in bias." With no journalism background, he too was able to secure a White House press pass, in early 2003, on the strength of representing GOPUSA, dedicated to "spreading the conservative message throughout America."

This is not how the White House press office has traditionally worked. "When I was there we didn't let political operatives in. It was completely contrary to what the press room should be used for," says Joe Lockhart, who served as White House press secretary to President Clinton during his second term. Asked what would have happened if a reporter from a clearly partisan operation, say "Democrats Today," had requested a White House press pass, Lockhart said that if the chief of the Democratic National Committee were attending an event at the White House, then perhaps the Democrats Today reporter might be allowed in for that one day. "But to be admitted as a reporter and sit in a chair and act like a reporter" for months on end the way Guckert did? "No," said Lockhart, "that's not within the realm of what [is] proper."

Guckert and Eberle remain at the center of the scandal. When liberal bloggers revealed that Guckert, who posed reliably friendly questions to administration officials, had recently offered his services online as a gay male escort, the questions for the White House only became more uncomfortable.

Guckert first came to national attention when he asked President Bush a question at his Jan. 26 press conference. Guckert's query, in which he ridiculed Democratic leaders for having "divorced themselves from reality," was what initially raised the ire of liberals. It was not how an openly Republican partisan got inside the White House press room, because partisans have been there for years. Lockhart recalls having been confronted with a similar question of White House access regarding veteran Baltimore, Md., radio host Lester Kinsolving, who for decades has pitched eccentric, long-winded and usually conservative-leaning questions inside the briefing room. (Kinsolving is currently recuperating from triple-bypass surgery.) Lockhart thought it was inequitable that Kinsolving was virtually the only local radio show host with daily access. "The issue got kicked up to my level. I thought it was fundamentally unfair, and it was clear that he was an annoyance to everyone in the room. And frankly we should have shut him down. But I knew if we kicked him out it would be a big story with the right-wing press, and I didn't need that."

Unlike Guckert, though, Kinsolving has an authentic background in journalism, having worked for the San Francisco Chronicle and the Indianapolis Star. Talon's defenders suggest that it too is a legitimate news outlet. But providing some insight into how it operates, Eberle told the New York Times last week that he rarely monitored Guckert's White House work. "Jeff did his thing. I did my thing," Eberle said. In other words, it appears that Guckert, who often cut and pasted White House press releases and posted them on Talon as "news," did not even have an editor. As Media Matters for America noted, Talon "apparently consists of little more than Eberle, Gannon, and a few volunteers."

Just how blatantly the White House press office looked the other way in regard to Guckert and his dubious status as a legitimate reporter comes into stark relief when examining his attempt to secure a similar press pass to cover Capitol Hill. Guckert submitted his application in December 2003 to the Standing Committee of Correspondents, a press group in charge of handing out credentials. In April 2004, the committee denied Guckert's request. Writing to Guckert, committee chairman Jim Drinkard outlined three clear deficiencies in Guckert's application:

1)                   "Committee guidelines require that on-line publications 'must charge a market rate fee for subscription or access, or carry paid advertising at current market rates.' You have not demonstrated to the committee's satisfaction that Talon News has any paid subscribers, that paid client newspapers publish Talon News stories, or that it is supported by advertising."

2)                   "The application for accreditation to the press galleries states that 'members of the press shall not engage in lobbying or paid advertising, publicity, promotion, work for any individual, political party, corporation, organization, or agency of the Federal Government.' Talon News has not demonstrated to the satisfaction of the committee that there is a separation from GOPUSA."

3)                   "Gallery rules and the application state that the principal income of correspondents must be obtained from news correspondence intended for publication in newspapers or news services. The committee feels that paying a single reporter a 'stipend' does not meet the intent of the rule."

The White House, in contrast, said that as long as Talon News or GOPUSA "existed," Guckert was free to attend its press briefings. Yet, in the past, a reporter seeking a permanent White House press pass has had to first secure credentials to cover Capitol Hill. Without those, the White House would not submit the application for a background check. But even though Guckert failed to secure Capitol Hill credentials, the White House waved him into press briefings for nearly two years using what's called a day pass. Those passes are designed for temporary use by out-of-town reporters who need access to the White House, not for indefinite use by reporters who flunk the Capitol Hill test.

To obtain a day pass during the Clinton administration, a reporter "had to make the case as to why that day was unique and why [he] had to cover the White House from inside the gates instead of outside," Lockhart says.

So the mystery remains: How did Guckert, with absolutely no journalism background and working for a phony news organization, manage to adopt the day-pass system as his own while sidestepping a thorough background check that might have detected his sordid past? That's the central question the White House refuses to address. And like its initial explanation that Guckert received his press pass the same way other journalists do, the notion first put out by White House officials that they knew little or nothing about GOPUSA/Talon News, its correspondent Guckert or its founder Eberle has also melted away. Instead, we now know, former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer personally spoke with Eberle about GOPUSA, so concerned was Fleischer that it was not an independent organization. (Eberle convinced Fleischer that it was.) Additionally, Guckert attended the invitation-only White House press Christmas parties in 2003 and 2004, and last holiday season, in a personal posting on GOPUSA,

Eberle thanked Karl Rove for his "assistance, guidance, and friendship." Press Impostor

February 23, 2005
The Detroit Free Press | Editorial

At the White House, don't duck the real questions.

How is it that an administration that screened thousands of people for attendance at Bush campaign rallies repeatedly let a fake reporter into the sanctorum of the White House pressroom under a false name? Who was running that background check? How could a president who declares that national security is his prime concern be so ill served for nearly two years by his own security detail?

What is the public to make of the fact that legitimate protesters are kept far away from President George W. Bush while an illegitimate "journalist" who's really working for a Republican propaganda mill is repeatedly allowed into the White House pressroom and regularly called upon by the president and the president's press secretary to ask questions?

Is it possible that the administration's formidable public relations machine was well aware that reporter "Jeff Gannon" of the Talon News Web site was really James Guckert, and that Talon and the Web site GOPUSA have the same owner and often the same pro-Republican content?

Is it possible that an administration that is so careful about scripting events and managing information approved of Guckert being planted in the pressroom to ask softball questions and even to keep an eye on the real reporters working there? Isn't that fair to ask, considering this is the same administration that used its taxpayer-funded, $250-million public relations apparatus to pay columnists to say nice things about its programs?

Once Guckert was exposed, shouldn't the administration, for the sake of security and integrity, have run identity checks on the other members of the White House press corps? Are there any pseudo-reporters planted there from Democratic organizations to ask hard questions?

Based on the Guckert case, can any self-styled journalist from an obscure Web site or blog expect to obtain a daily pass to attend White House press briefings? Given the proliferation of same, is the White House prepared for a stampede of applications? Will all identities be verified? Will reporters from GOP-friendly media receive preferred seating?

Is anyone in the Bush administration asking these questions? Or interested in answering them?

Don't Give Gannon A Pass

http://www.americanprogressaction.org/site/pp.asp?c=klLWJcP7H&b=83210

By now, almost everyone's heard of Jeff Gannon/James Guckert. He's the fake reporter with a false name given all-too-real press credentials by the White House. He's known for asking biased, leading questions during press briefings before finally being exposed a month ago as a right-wing operative with no journalism experience, a fake name, and a shady past. There are some serious ethical, professional and national security issues at stake. Now, "Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) is circulating a letter among his colleagues that asks President Bush to launch an investigation" into how Gannon gained access to White House press briefings without any journalistic qualifications. Durbin and other concerned lawmakers are adding their voices to a previous investigation request by Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ), as well as a subpoena request by two leaders of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee, Reps. John Conyers (D-MI) and Louise Slaughter (D-NY), who want federal prosecutors to gain access to a record Gannon kept of his time over the past two years. Here are some basic questions that must be answered by the White House:

HOW LONG CAN JOURNALISTS GAIN ACCESS TO THE WHITE HOUSE WITHOUT AN FBI BACKGROUND CHECK? Most White House journalists have what is called a "hard pass," a permanent pass obtained after undergoing a rigorous FBI background check. Gannon skipped over that step. Instead, as Salon's Eric Boehlert explains, "the White House waved him into press briefings for nearly two years using what's called a day pass." Now, day passes are special exceptions that are "designed for temporary use by out-of-town reporters who need access to the White House, not for indefinite use by reporters." If the background check is necessary for reporters with extended access to the White House, why were the rules circumvented for Gannon? Is there a limit to how long a reporter can slide on "day" passes, as Gannon did for years?

HOW DID GANNON GET A WHITE HOUSE PRESS PASS TWO MONTHS BEFORE HIS SUPPOSED PUBLICATION EVEN EXISTED? Bush Press Secretary Scott McClellan admitted the White House gave Gannon his first day press pass in February 2003. The problem: His "publication," Talon News, didn't exist until April 2003.

BY WHAT CRITERIA DID THE WHITE HOUSE EVALUATE TALON NEWS? Talon News is the brainchild of a Republican activist from Texas, Bobby Eberle. Eberle, who runs the aptly named

"GOPUSA," told the New York Times he created Talon News because he wanted to quietly construct a news service with a conservative slant: "if someone were to see 'GOPUSA,' there's an instant built-in bias there." In denying Gannon a pass, the congressional press office pointed out Gannon was unable to show that "Talon News has any paid subscribers." They also found that while actual working reporters can show their principal income comes from reporting stories for publication in actual news services, Talon's "paying a single reporter a 'stipend' does not meet the intent of the rule." As the Washington Post's Dana Milbank put it, Gannon was "representing a phony media company that doesn't really have any such thing as circulation or readership."

HOW DID GANNON GET A WHITE HOUSE PRESS PASS UNDER A FAKE NAME? Jeff Gannon's real name is James Guckert. (He told Wolf Blitzer that he changed his name because "Jeff Gannon" was easier to pronounce.) Although all applications for White House press passes are supposed to be thoroughly vetted, White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan said he was unaware that Gannon was using an alias. His predecessor, Ari Fleischer, also pleads ignorance. Gannon signed in to the White House each day as "Jeff Guckert," a name which did not match his pass, yet no one seemed to thing that was strange. In fact, no one at the White House seems overly concerned with what amounts to a stunning national security breach.

WHAT IS GANNON'S CONNECTION TO THE VALERIE PLAME CASE? Jeff Gannon has been interviewed by FBI agents who are investigating another security breach in the White House, namely, the leaking of CIA agent Valerie Plame's name to the press. So far, Gannon has been coy, giving "conflicting signals, over many months, concerning whether he saw a secret document or merely knew about it from other sources." Today he says he never really saw the memo, he'd only read about it in the Wall Street Journal. Reps. Conyers and Slaughter are asking Patrick Fitzgerald, the lead prosecutor in the Plame investigation, to subpoena the journal Gannon kept over the past two years to find out what Gannon actually knew, and when.

From the Ashes Arises The Liar and The Whore

February 24, 2005
by Anthony Wade
http://www.opednews.com/wade_022505_liar_whore.htm
www.OpEdNews.com

You have got to be kidding me. The completely disgraced and irrelevant Jeff/Jim Gannon/Guckert has popped back up today and seems to have added borderline personality traits to his resume because he has clearly become detached from reality while he was gone. There he was again today on jeffgannon.com playing the victim and the hero of the right, while completely ignoring what had transpired and recreating history in the process. Luckily, there is that annoying thing known as a public record we can rely on to debunk this male hooker turned faux journalist.

In his “current column”, entitled “Fear and Loathing in the Press Room” we have multiple lies and misstatements which require some analysis. I would be remiss if I did not point out that Jeff/Jim could not even be original in the title of his new column, ripping off the recently deceased Hunter Thompson, a man who would not tolerate such a parasite as Jeff/Jim.

For background, I call this man Jeff/Jim because he is a liar who used a fake name to access the White House Press Pool. His fake name was Jeff Gannon, a name he claims he used because his real name, Jim Guckert is just too dang hard to pronounce. Whatever. Jeff/Jim should have stayed away after he was exposed, in more ways than one.

Going through his “column” we see (Jeff/Jim’s words in italics, followed by my commentary):

“During my tenure I developed some good friends there who welcomed the refreshing perspective I brought to the briefings and respected my courage for asking the questions that I did.”

Courage? Courage to ask the questions that he did? Let’s take a look at the courageous questions that Jeff/Jim asked when he was pretending to be a journalist.

1) “In your denunciations of the Abu Ghraib photos, you've used words like 'sickening,' 'disgusting' and 'reprehensible.' Will you have any adjectives left to adequately describe the pictures from Saddam's rape rooms and torture chambers? And will Americans ever see those images?”

Hmm, nothing courageous here Jeff/Jim. You see what this is, is an example of a fluff question. It is barely a real question because it is rhetorical in nature designed only to set up Scott McClellan to talk about Saddam, when the questions were about Abu Ghraib. There is nothing courageous Jeff/Jim about deflecting difficult questions from an administration that may have condoned torture as a policy. An example of a courageous question here may have been asking about the legalese language used by Alberto Gonzales to possibly justify torture that may have actually led to Abu Ghraib. Courage, is in asking for the truth Jeff/Jim, not shilling for someone like a whore.

2) I'd like to comment on the angry mob that surrounded Karl Rove's house on Sunday. They chanted and pounded on the windows until the D.C. police and Secret Service were called in. The protest was organized by the National People's Action Coalition, whose members receive taxpayer funds, as well as financial support from groups including Theresa Heinz Kerry's Tides Foundation.”

Guess what Jeff/Jim, no courage here either. It is not courageous to overstate a situation for the sole purpose of propping up the administration. It is not journalistic. To then further link the protest to the wife of an opponent of the administration, and lie in the process, is not courageous, it is weaselesque.

3) Since there have been so many questions about what the President was doing over 30 years ago, what is it that he did after his honorable discharge from the National Guard? Did he make speeches alongside Jane Fonda, denouncing America's racist war in Vietnam? Did he testify before Congress that American troops committed war crimes in Vietnam? And did he throw somebody else's medals at the White House to protest a war America was still fighting?"

Lastly Jeff/Jim, these are not even questions. They are a pathetic attempt by you to pimp for this president. There is nothing journalistic about asking ridiculous pseudo-questions that serve no other intention but to malign John Kerry and prop up George Bush. Once again Jeff/Jim, you are not courageous, you are a whore. Well, more about being a whore later. For, now, let’s go back to his new “column”.

“It wasn’t until I asked “The Question” that everything abruptly changed.  Initially, my colleagues had no reaction to the query posed to President Bush.  It wasn’t until Rush Limbaugh drew attention to it that there was any interest at all.  But that was enough to get a liberal group dedicated to attacking conservatives in the media to mobilize.  It was horrified that the relentless string of hostile and a few downright disrespectful questions had been broken.  My greater sin in their eyes, however was that I dared to suggest that two Senate Democratic leaders held an illogical view of the economy’s weakness and the strength of Social Security”

Allow me to introduce you to a lie Mr. Jeff/Jim. You are correct that your “question” is what stirred the pot.

For reference, that question was:

“Senate Democratic leaders have painted a very bleak picture of the U.S. economy. [Senate Minority Leader] Harry Reid [D-NV] was talking about soup lines. And [Senator] Hillary Clinton [D-NY] was talking about the economy being on the verge of collapse. Yet in the same breath they say that Social Security is rock solid and there's no crisis there. How are you going to work -- you've said you are going to reach out to these people -- how are you going to work with people who seem to have divorced themselves from reality?"

You apparently forgot one salient point Jeff/Jim. Harry Reid and Hillary Clinton never actually said those quotes. Now, maybe you did not realize that because you heard it on the Rush Limbaugh show and gosh, whatever ole Rush says must be true. You see Jeff/Jim, Rush was making a joke about how Reid and Clinton viewed the economy. You heard him, and assumed the quotes were real. Since you were not a real journalist, you did not bother to check the source, verify the quotes, or check the veracity of the entire story. Instead you regurgitated the Rush Limbaugh joke as fact, in a fake question, to the President of the United States. It had nothing to do with your assertion that they may view the economy inaccurately. The greater “sin” as you put it, was your packaging a softball question, which contained your attribution of two quotes to Senate leaders that they never said, which you heard on the Rush Limbaugh show. Since your entire “career” could be viewed as a joke, I can see how you may have been confused by Rush’s joke. When you spend your life in dis-reality, it does become difficult to differentiate what is real and what is fiction.

“Immediately the questions about how I got into the briefing room began to be asked.  After all, I had “no journalistic credentials” despite the fact that I had written over 500 articles for Talon News over a two-year period.  I must be a plant, because there simply cannot be a conservative journalist walking on the hallowed domain of the Fourth Estate built over an old swimming pool.”

Couple of points here for you Jeff/Jim. One, if you have done over 500 articles you may want to check Talon because they have scrubbed your very existence from their site. Secondly, writing articles does not grant you journalistic credentials. I have written hundreds of articles but I do not presume that I would be granted access to ask the President of the United States a softball question. The fact that you write, does not make you a writer. In fact, most of your “work” has been debunked as being nothing but plagiarism, with entire sections of GOP press releases lifted verbatim, and then passed off as your column. In journalism,

Jeff/Jim, this is a big faux-pas. I understand you would not know this, since you were not really a journalist. Lastly, the free thinking world did not presume you were a plant because you were conservative. That is another lie by you. The reason we know you are a plant, is that there is no way you should have ever been granted access to the press pool to begin with. Let me let you in on a little secret Jeff/Jim, you were never a journalist. In fact, you were denied a hard pass from the pool. Undeterred, you somehow magically made it in to every press conference for two years, with no journalistic training, no real news agency behind you, and lets say a colorful background at best. Someone let you in Jeff/Jim. We all know it. You know it. The new media will find out soon enough who that person is Jeff/Jim. Not only were you granted access where you should not have, but you were called on regularly, to bail out Scott McClellan and then we are supposed believe that Bush himself just happened to call on you. Maybe you are divorced from reality Jeff/Jim, but the rest of us are not. You are not only a whore, but you were a plant.

“I feel badly for my colleagues who became the target of these same people on the Left who harshly chastised them for allowing a traitor operate among them.  How could they stand idly by while Jeff Gannon breached the ideological barrier that kept conservatives out of the White House briefing room?”

No Jeff/Jim, you do not get to lie anymore. This is not about conservatives in the White House briefing room; it is about whores in the White House briefing room. It is also about a mainstream media that knew you were a shill and a plant and stood by and did nothing about it, out of fear of an administration that controls media. You can go pimp these lies somewhere else Jeff/Jim, no one is buying your propaganda anymore.

“The well-funded liberal attack machine, Media Matters, filled with operatives from the DNC and failed Democratic campaigns incited activist bloggers to wage a full-scale jihad against me.  All sorts of personal information about me, including my Social Security number was published on the internet.  Threats against me as well as my family led to my voluntary resignation in the belief that would bring it to an end, but the bloggers were aiming for my total destruction.”

Nice try Jeff/Jim. You keep missing the point though. This was never about you because you are completely irrelevant and inconsequential. You are but a symptom of a far greater problem. You were the one Jeff/Jim who boasted that you were out there for the taking and finally, people took you up on it. It is not about your “destruction”. If you go on to have a great career in the “service” industry Jeff/Jim, that would be fine with me. As long as you do not poison this country anymore by bringing down the last vestiges of journalistic integrity into the sewer from whence you came.

“They dug deep for dirt, dredging up things long past and erecting a fantasy world worthy of a Vince Flynn novel.  What they found is domain names and sexy pictures from which sprung rumors and conspiracy theories.  Based on some of the emails I’ve received, many of these people were conflicted with hatred for my politics and tingling they experienced while viewing pictures said to be me.”

Clever gay-bashing here Jeff/Jim. The facts though are these. You went on CNN and stated that these web domains were never hosted and were for another client. Americablog did not have to dig too deep at all Jeff/Jim. Someone came forth to give you up, just like that. The websites were hosted and the pictures on them, were of you. By the way, if you are inferring that the pictures of you naked and spread eagle are not you, then you need to tell your twin to find another line of work.

“Criticism of my work and my journalistic background is fair game, but the intensive scrutiny into my personal life, especially things from the past have startled many in the journalistic community.  Now Democrats in Congress are demanding that the White House do more thorough investigation into the personal lives and sexual histories of reporters.”

No Jeff/Jim. Your life became fair game when you lied about who you were and what you did. You lied on your resume to make it sound as if you “graduated” from a journalistic school, when it was a two-day seminar. You lied about your name. You then lied about your “news agency” and now it turns out that you were in the press pool, before Talon News was even in “business”. When you host sites that sell yourself as a male prostitute, which is illegal, YOU have opened up this can of worms. Do not play the victim, you do it as well as you played the journalist, which is to say not well at all.

“But because I am a conservative, they continue to try to smear me with allegations of behavior that they otherwise would vigorously defend.”

Wrong again Jeff/Jim. First of all, you are not being smeared with allegations. There have been over 40 naked pictures of you found on gay-hooker sites where you charge $1,200 for a weekend and you boast how you like to be on top. It gives me no pleasure in reporting it, YOU said it Jeff/Jim. YOU posted your pictures. YOU sold yourself. It has nothing to do with the fact that you are a conservative; it has everything to do with the fact that you are a liar.

“This episode is so rich with irony that it will take me many columns and a book to deal with it all.  What is most telling about the Left is how quickly it was able to abandon its sacred principles of free speech and privacy to attack someone it disagreed with.”

Glad to see you intend to make money off of your lies Jeff/Jim, just what whores do. You confuse some more issues here though. Free speech is sacred. It is not for protecting you. You do not have a right to lie Jeff/Jim. It is free speech we are seeking to preserve by keeping vermin like you our of the press pool. You are a liar, not a journalist. The people of this country need to know the news they hear is unfiltered, and unbiased. Don’t you dare drag free speech, a concept you have egregiously abused, into your wretched defense.

“This is not to say that I have not made mistakes in the past.  Like all of us have at one time or another, I made poor choices and exercised bad judgment.  But I believe in a forgiving God who changed my life. It was through that renewal that I went on to have a career as a reporter and further blessed to become a White House correspondent.”

I am a born again Christian so I agree with Jeff/Jim here that God is a forgiving God who is in the life-changing business. I hate to cast doubt here but God did not make Jeff/Jim a White House correspondent, someone within the White House did. Also, if Jeff/Jim truly changed his life than there are some pictures he needs to explain, and this time, not lie about.

“At the heart of all this is the further erosion of the Old Media.  The Left is engaging in “21^st Century McCarthyism” in an effort to blacklist conservative journalists in order protect their domination of the media.  These people may have exposed some of my human failings but they have also revealed their own hypocrisy.  The damage to me is done, and it wasn’t fatal.  But we are only beginning to see the effect of Gannongate on the Old Media and the Left.”

There was no “Gannongate”. There was simply a flawed man who went about the business of lying. To say anything more is to lend more credibility to an empty shell. There is no domination of media on the left. That is part of the big lie. The GOP has invested billions of dollars over decades to build up a humongous media army that they wield with impunity. Whenever Bush or the GOP needs a point made, they can call their talk radio minions such as Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity and their cable cohorts such as Joe Scarborough or Chris Matthews to push their talking points. Last week, Karl Rove wanted to talk unfettered about Bush’s social security scam, under the guise of journalism so he gave Sean Hannity an “exclusive”. There is no blacklisting of conservative journalists; conservatives control most media at this point. What there is, is an uprising. The new media stood up and said that blatant liars, without credentials do not belong asking the President of the United States meaningless questions, while real reporters are banned. Whatever damage was done to Jeff/Jim was the fault of Jeff/Jim, if that was his real name.

At the top of his website Jeff/Jim has the unmitigated gall to call himself the “voice of the new media”. This is a pathetic attempt to claim the title, the mantle, of the very people who uncovered his farce. The new media is the voice of Media Matters. It is the voice of Opednews.com. It is the voice of William Rivers Pitt and Truthout.com. It is the voice of America’s blog. It is the voice of Daily Kos. It is the voice of the people. It is the voice that says no to state sponsored media and propaganda. Jeff/Jim knows this but could not resist lying one more time.

So today Jeff/Jim rises from the ashes of the demise of a fake “career.” He is full of bravado still, alternating between playing the victim and playing journalist. He tries to rebuild legitimately, what he never had, credibility. He pretends that he is somehow the victim of a vicious smear campaign orchestrated by the powerful Democratic Party. He forgets that it was he that lied. It was he that lobbed the softball questions. On his website today he states:

“In regard to the allegations about my personal life, I have been advised by my attorneys not to comment on any of the details pending the outcome of any possible legal action I might pursue.  Therefore, I won't be discussing any of that stuff here.”

Sure Jeff/Jim. The thought of suing Amerciablog or Daily Kos, has to have the left salivating. Deposing Jeff/Jim and asking him to explain how he gained access to the White House press pool, under oath, that would be phenomenal. The fact is that Jeff/Jim has no legal grounds to stand on and he knows it. There is nothing untrue that has been said about him. The mess that his life has become is of his own doing. We have not even discussed how he managed to get a hold of a secret document outing a covert CIA operative, a felony. We have not discussed how he gained access to the pool before he even worked for Talon. We have not discussed how Jeff/Jim received information, including when we bombed Iraq, far in advance of the mainstream press. We have not investigated how he calls a volunteer reporting job a career in journalism and where his money comes from. Money usually reveals all sorts of connections. We have not discussed how the man who runs Talon thanked Karl Rove specifically on his website for guidance. Go ahead Jeff/Jim, sue away. The witness stand is a wonderful panacea for discovering the real truth.

Lastly on Jeff/Jim’s website, his scrolling message at the top reads:

“So feared by the left, it had to take me down”

Delusions of grandeur notwithstanding, the bottom line is Jim Guckert took Jeff Gannon down. Jeff Gannon wanted to be a reporter, but he had no training, so he pretended he did. He had no real news agency to work for, so he made one up. He could not write original articles, so he plagiarized GOP press releases. He could not get in to the White House, so he had someone plant him. He could not ask an honest question, so eventually, people took notice. They started to ask honest questions about Jeff Gannon and soon discovered that Jeff Gannon was Jim Guckert.

Jim Guckert had lied on his Talon website resume. Jim Guckert had not paid back over $20,000 in back taxes. Jim Guckert had apparently set up gay-military websites. Jim Guckert had prostituted himself online for $1,200 per weekend for his sexual services. The problem for Jeff Gannon was not the left. The problem for Jeff Gannon, was Jim Guckert

Anthony Wade, a contributing writer to opednews.com, is dedicated to educating the populace to the lies and abuses of the government. He is a 37-year-old independent writer from New York with political commentary articles seen on multiple websites.  A Christian progressive and professional Rehabilitation Counselor working with the poor and disabled, Mr. Wade believes that you can have faith and hold elected officials accountable for lies and excess.

Comment: There really isn’t a great deal more to say about this filthy mess. The same Christian Right that tried to oust Clinton for a casual affair with a female staffer now are stuck with a deep and very serious scandal concerning rampant homosexuality, not only in the White House itself but throughout official Washington. That someone is gay is not the issue. The issue is that the Bush people pose as Christian Gentlemen, determined to protect the American Family (who vote) from the evils of liberalism such as gay marriage and abortion. At the same time these puritans are bleating about patriotism and purity, they are down on their knees for something other than prayer. When, not if, the voting public realizes the disgusting nature and widespread intent of this rampant hypocrisy there will be a major sea change. Rove, who is obviously into this up to his triple-chins, is a mean, vicious man who delights in destroying his perceived enemies with threats and peverse innuendo. If and when this comes back on him and his twittering friends, he ought not to be surprised. He ought to be put into a cage and displayed daily on the Mall for the edification of all and the delight of pigeons. ed