Everyone keeps asking for a solution and one might be to continue to
support in full the courage of real Democrats like Rep. Conyers and
Louise Slaughter who are risking and putting their lives where their
rhetoric is.

Please visit John Conyers Blog with new forums. The comments are good
but in response to his short articles and links there should be many
more than 8 to 14 comments. He also needs support for his campaign
for re-election.

If you go to his Blog you can see how much more he is doing than even
the persistent investigation into Gannongate and the purchase of
propaganda from the MSM with millions of taxpayer money and a
Petition for his bill to make elections fair and auditable.

http://www.conyersblog.us/

****

Gannongate Continues

Louise Slaughter and I continue to pursue the myriad unanswered
questions involving Jeff Gannon. Today we released a response to a
FOIA request that raises more questions that it answers. Raw Story
has both the text of the FOIA response, as well as the new letter we
sent today to the White House.

The bottom line is that months after the scandal first broke, we
still don't know who at the Upper levels of the White House greased
the wheels for the entry of a non-credentialed journalist to the
White House. What we do know is that Mr. Gannon did obtain entry on
scores and scores of occasions.

We do know that he obtained entry on numerous ocassions when there
was not even a press briefing to attend. We do know that he entered
the White House on numerous ocassions when there is no sign out. We
also know that notwithstanding White House Press Secretary Scott
McClellan's statement that he did not approve Gannon, his office did
OK Gannon's access.

We know that there is plenty of smoke in this case, and no one in the
Administration and no Republican in Congress is willing to
investigate exactly how rotten and corrupt this scandal really is.

Well, we're still not done. We continue to comb through the FOIA
response and we will continue to pursue the White House. This case is
about more than a phony journalist slipping into the White House to
ask a few false soft ball questions, its about abuse of power. It
illustrates as much as anything why we need a changing of the guard
in Washington.

Replies: 8 Comments

Comment #1: 4/25/05 @ 10:06pm ET...

Bravo, Bravo, Mr. Conyers and Rep. Slaughter. Let's all remember that
the Gannon affair isn't just about a male prostitute slipping in and
out of the Whitehouse (no pun intended, but kind of hard to avoid).
He may also be connected to the leak of the Valerie Plame story. High
Treason at the very least if he's guilty. There's more to this than
what the surface reveals. And in no way is this comparable to Monica.

She was never in a position to manipulate major stories or breech
confidential information. This is a trail worth following.


Comment #2: 4/25/05 @ 10:20pm ET...

Congratulations, Mr. Conyers and Rep. Slaughter for being the only
Representatives courageous enough to pursue the "Gannon" matter.

I thought that after 9-11, security around the President would have
been heightened. I can't believe that the administration would allow
this individual to come and go as he pleased, with no scrutiny and no
real credentials, unless there was something shady going on.

It certainly looks like the Republicans want to sweep the matter
under the rug, and fervently hope it will just go away. Please don't
let that happen. We citizens deserve to know what is going on in our
government, who is having access to our president (even if we don't
much like him), and the purpose for that access.

The occasions on which "Gannon" signed in to the White House and
didn't sign out make me wonder--was he an overnight guest? It's hard
for me to believe that the Secret Service logs would be so sloppy.
And then there are all those occasions when there didn't seem to
be much for a real reporter to do--yet "Gannon" was there.

Appearance of impropriety? Sure looks like it to me.

Comment #3: 4/26/05 @ 2:39am ET...

"Donna from Rome" posted this over at KOS.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/4/25/201425/305

"...this particular date from the log in another thread:

3/19 9:38 - 3:27 (unusually long) (12:15-12:59) (Bush speech, 10 pm)

This was the date of the President's press conference
announcing "Operation Iraqi Freedom"; it was held on March 19, 2003
at a few minutes past 10 pm.

That day, Guckert was in the White house for almost 6 hours (!!!) in
the morning, and then went back for another 45-minute visit around
lunch time.

"Unusually long"???!!!

It has, interestingly enough, been alleged that Guckert/Gannon knew
about the Iraq attack well in advance, tipping someone off 4 hours
before the President's speech:

A news producer for a major network's local affiliate just told me
that Gannon told the producer the US was going to attack Iraq four
hours before President Bush announced it to
the nation.

I would think that this single date alone would warrant a specific
investigation, and that it shows there is definitely something very
fishy about Guckert's constant presence at the White House."

http://www.givemeliberty.org/FreedomDrive/Redress/PetitionTax.htm

From Daily KOS blog:

Gannon, TANG, Hannity
by realitique
Tue Apr 26th, 2005 at 17:52:24 PDT

A caller on Air America's Majority Report just made a startling
connection, thanks in part to the Secret Service documents Raw Story
released on Monday. The caller claimed that two hours after
Gannon/Guckert went to the White House when there was no briefing
except a gaggle aboard Air Force One, he reported the scoop about the
TANG documents on Free Republic, mentioning Mapes. The caller also
claimed that he (Gannon) then told Hannity about the documents

Abuse of power, sort of like lying to congress about WMD's to have a
war on Iraq and spend nearly a third of a trillion of our dollars to
do it, when they said Iraq could pay for the cost of the war and
rebuilding through their oil revenue?

Taking the money from SS to fund the thing and then whining that SS
is going to go broke for the boomers who paid the money in since the
Reagan years for their retirement, that abuse of power?

Crooks, they're crooks. I'm a boomer and I feel robbed. Every member
of congress should read John Dean's book, Worse Than Watergate.

*****
John Fund Caught on Tape

Toss out Provisional Ballots of People Who "Don't Look Like They Live
in the Neighborhood"

The John Fund quote Congressman Conyers referred to below can be
found in the streaming Quicktime file here.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/4/13/175339/272

*****

Kerry Investigation was on the Fast Track
While Rice Investigation was on the Back Burner

I have posted some new information over at DailyKos about some very
questionable goings on in the government office tasked with
investigating very questionable going on.

Comment #5: 4/14/05 @ 11:32am ET...

Regarding the selective "investigations" of possible violations of
the Hatch Act: ONE PARTY RULE! We are unfamiliar (until recently)
with the full implications of this on everything the government
touches, but this blog can 1)document the results of this for
posterity (and archive it) and 2) investigate new methods of action
in a new political landscape.

Rep. Conyers is on the leading edge of what will be seen, in
retrospect, as reaction to a "sea change" in our system of
government, either attempted or permanent. He is the
clearest member of Congress to know he is in exile and act
accordingly.

In fact, isn't that what you are really doing, Rep. Conyers? In
essence, isn't it is necessary for the Democratic party, in exile, to
preserve an alternative view of the history of this administration
and Congress because of the constant "rewriting" of facts and
failures to act?

The question for us, after we "vent our frustrations", is how is
today's situation different and what can be done about it. How do we
inform the public that their government and media at present function
very differently than they may realize and distinctly different
than in the past.

Republicans have reason to pretend there are no real changes. They
continue in their echo chamber of "victimization" to belie that they
have firm control over all functions of government and will soon have
control over the Supreme Court (this is the reason for the
injudicious attacks on the judiciary).

Why, say the republicans, is this any different from the past forty
years, when the democrats had control of Congress? Well, we see the
answer here: there is only faint pressure to bear on this issue of
selective enforcement by the compromised justice department.

We need to be disussing why all of this is occurring. Without
effective investigative tools, documentation may be the only
alternative. Is it?

http://www.conyersblog.us/