John McCain Lobbyist Scandal With Vicki Iseman About Power

The MSN and the Internet in the form of thousands of emails on the Barack Obama listservs were abuz with the news about John McCain's association with a beautiful lobbyist Vicki Iseman. The association between the two is eight years old and while Senator McCain says there was no sexual relationship, in my view there was a "power association" -- a marriage of a Senator flattered by the attention of a smart, lovely young woman who knew the ropes in Washington, and her desire to be in the company of a senior elected official who could open doors for her.

Vicki Iseman is no slouch. A look at the bio on her website will tell you that:

VICKI ISEMAN
Vicki Iseman, Partner, represents corporate and public clients on issues as diverse as government contracting and regulatory reform. Her experience includes representation of clients before Congress, Federal government agencies and local opinion leaders.

She has extensive experience in telecommunications, representing corporations before the House and Senate Commerce Committees. Her work on the landmark 1992 and 1996 communications bills helped secure cable access for broadcast television stations. Her experience in the communications field includes digital television conversion, satellite regulations and telecommunications ownership provisions.

She has been active in grassroots communications campaigns for clients, building community based support for legislative initiatives. Among others, she participated in the "Keep America Moving" campaign that educated community leaders on the allocation of Federal highway trust funds.

In addition, she has consulted for clients who are interested in government contracting opportunities. She has assisted corporations through the authorization and appropriation process. An active fundraiser, she has organized and participated in many political fundraising events.

A native of Pennsylvania, she holds a B.A. degree in Education from Indiana University in Pennsylvania.

(Note: the company took her bio off their main site, but a cached version is at the Huff Post. )

Iseman is skilled in getting earmarks for her clients. Earmarks are expenditures for projects in an area of interest to an elected official. While, it's not clear -- yet -- that she helped McCain in that area, it's documented that by 2006, she'd become a name partner in her firm and quite good at the practice.

And Vicky's client list is extensive:

American Maglev Technology

AMFM Inc

Arison Family Trust

AstraZeneca

BearingPoint Inc

CACI International

CanWest

Capstar Broadcasting Partners

Carnival Corp

City of Miami, FL

City of Palm Springs, CA

Click Radio

Computer Sciences Corp

Future Leaders of America

Hillsborough County

Hispanic Broadcasting Inc

Homer-Center School District

i2Telecom International

Indiana University of Pennsylvania

Ion Media Networks

Jovan Broadcasting

Latona Assoc

Marin County, CA

National Stroke Assn

Operation Warm

Paxson Communications

PriceWaterhouseCoopers

Saga Communications

Sinclair Broadcast Group

Telemundo Network Group

Total Living Network

Tulare County

Univision Communications

Walter Industries

I don't think this is a case of a classic sex scandal and to look at it that way is to miss what in my view is a much richer story: a tale of how McCain made relationships with lobbyists and very much before his relatively new efforts to curb lobbiyst activities.

But one does have to wonder if McCain's sudden war on lobbyists had something to do with his relationship with Ms. Iseman. Time will tell.

Major News From Barack Obama

I received this e-mail message from Democratic frontrunner Barack Obama less than an hour ago.

david --

We learned something extraordinary since I wrote to you last night.

We've crunched all the numbers and discovered that we are within striking distance of something historic: one million people donating to this campaign.

Think about that ... nearly one million people taking ownership of this movement, five dollars or twenty-five dollars at a time.

We're already more than 900,000 strong, including over half-a-million donating so far this year. This unprecedented foundation of support has built a campaign that has shaken the status quo and proven that ordinary people can compete in a political process too often dominated by special interests.

Unlike Senator Clinton or Senator McCain, we haven't taken a dime from Washington lobbyists or special interest PACs. Our campaign is responsible to no one but the people.

One million donors would be a remarkable feat -- something that's never been done before in a presidential primary and something no one ever thought would be possible for us. And you still have the opportunity to be a part of it.

If you make a donation right now, one of those 900,000 donors has promised to give again in order to match your first gift. You can double the impact of your first donation -- and you can even choose to exchange a note about why you are part of this movement.

We started this improbable journey a little over a year ago in Springfield, Illinois.

And because you've joined together to make your voices heard, this journey isn't looking as improbable anymore.

Since our victory on February 5th, we've won ten straight contests.

But on March 4th, we face a huge challenge in Texas and Ohio, who will vote along with Rhode Island and Vermont. We are behind in the big states and need as many people involved as possible if we're going to win.

If we can reach our goal of one million donors by March 4th, we can send a powerful message that the Washington establishment and big-money interests cannot ignore.

As one million people with one voice, we can tell them that their days of dominating Washington are coming to an end -- the old politics are crumbling and a new voice is breaking through. Our voice.

I learned the power of ordinary people coming together as a community organizer on the South Side of Chicago.

I worked side-by-side with people who had been laid off from steel plants that were moved overseas. These were people who needed new jobs to rebuild their lives, and their political leaders were ignoring them.

But even though the odds were stacked against them, they discovered that by coming together with one voice, they could no longer be ignored.

When we launched this campaign, we knew we were up against similar odds. We knew we'd be running against a massive political machine with deep ties to the Washington establishment.

We knew it wouldn't be easy.

But if we can do this, we're not just going to win an election. We're going to change our country.

Thank you so much,

Barack

John McCain Wins Wisconsin and Washington State Over Huckabee

John McCain is just a few steps closer to the Republican nomination with decisive wins on Tuesday and in Wisconsin and Washington State. But John's got a bigger problem and Amy Holmes and the Republican Party has an uphilll battle in that Barack Obama himself tonight has drawn more voters than the entire Republican Party has for all of the primary contests.

Yikes!

Barack Obama's Sweep: Wisconsin, Hawaii, and Washington State

Barack Obama has one again. He won decisively in both Wisconsin and Hawaii, and by 58 percent / 41 percent in Wisconsin, and a whopping 74 percent to 26 percent, respectively in Hawaii. That's ten straight wins for Obama and a fresh set of donors and fans.

But the campaign withstood what is the strongest challenge of negative press on the part of both the Clintons and the mainstream media. It's started with what I think was a misguided and vealedly racist attack on Barack's speeches as lacking substance. But then it got worse with attacks on Michelle Obama because she said that in her adult life she was finally proud to be an American.

I agree.

Clinton fans are wondering why she's not only losing, but being totally beaten in a landslide most of the time. The answer is simple. She's using the old style politics of divide and attack and it's not working. Many public officials know that you don't attack when it's not popular to do so.

I end this blog post with a video made by the University of Wisconsin chapter of Students for Obama:

Michelle Obama Speaks For Me. I'm FINALLY PROUD OF AMERICA

Michelle Obama speaks for me. I'm finally proud to be in America and for anyone Afirican American, they feel the same way too. Look, after decades of racial discrimination, political lies with Watergate, Clinton scandals and all the rest, we've finally reached a point where we all can exhale, because we've been waiting too long to do so.

Michelle Obama speaks for me!

Hillary Clinton Can't Use Her Own Words So What's She Talking About

Hillary Clinton's officially off the deep end and desperate. If she's the nominee, I'm voting for McCain, and you can bank on it.

First, Clinton says that Obama should use his own words -- but she should use her own words. Hell, she was the one who said Fired Up and Ready To Go." She's not able to use her own words at all.

I really don't like the idea of her as president. She's running an ugly campaign.

Did Officer Wiley Willis Do Brutality Against Angela Garbarino

In my opinion this is an excellent example of a police officer terrorizing a person and turning off a camera himself to continue an act of brutality. This happened in Shreveport, LA and to one Angela Garbarino . who was arrested on suspicion of DUI by Officer Wiley Willis, who has been fired.

But this again shed light on why some -- not all -- police officers are allowed to behave in this way. It wrecks the very idea of "protect and to serve." How can you feel protected by people who can act like this?

Here's the rest of the story, from ABC News:

A Louisiana police officer was fired after a woman, who was pulled over on the suspicion of a DWI, ended up with two black eyes and bruises to her face while in police custody in November.


Video

DWI Suspect in Pool of Blood: How Did it Happen?
What makes Angela Garbarino's injuries and situation more curious is the fact that Shreveport police Officer Wiley Willis turned off the interrogation-room camera after he and Garbarino exchanged words.


The video shows Garbarino requesting a phone call.


"You're not going to let me call anybody?" she asks on the video. "I have a right to call somebody right now and I know that. Is this on the record?"


The footage documents Wiley attempting to read Garbarino her rights, but he runs out of patience and things get tense. He seems to forcefully put her in a chair.


"Don't touch me again. Get away from me," Garbarino says after a scream.



Then, Wiley walks over to the police camera recording the booking and turns it off. What happens next is a mystery, but when the video resumes the handcuffed Garbarino is sprawled on the floor and silently lying in a pool of her blood.


Another officer arrives and takes a cursory look before Garbarino is wheeled out on a stretcher. In addition to her bruised face, Garbarino's injuries also included two broken teeth.


While Garbarino says Wiley physically abused her, his attorney said what he did was "in accordance with normal practice."


"The suspect again tried to leave the room. In the process of stopping her, she fell and injured herself," said Eron Brainard in a statement to ABC News.


Wiley is appealing his dismissal and police have not brought charges against him because no one knows for sure what occurred.


Meanwhile, Garbarino faces reckless driving, hit-and-run and DWI charges. She has denied the charges.


A Shreveport police spokesperson said no specific law about the phone call exists, but typically suspects are processed, booked and then allowed to make a phone call.


But at least one expert said at the very least Wiley should have called for a female backup.

Castro Resigns After 49 Years Of Cuban Rule

It's hard to imagine the end of his reign, but it's coming. He was a force for the protection of the working person in Cuba, even if I didn't agree with how he accomplished his objectives. Here's the Washington Post story.

Fidel Castro retires

HAVANA (Reuters) - Ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro said on Tuesday that he will not return to lead the country as president or commander-in-chief, retiring as head of state 49 years after he seized power in an armed revolution.

Castro, 81, who has not appeared in public for almost 19 months, said in a statement to the country that he would not seek a new presidential term when the National Assembly meets on February 24.

"To my dear compatriots, who gave me the immense honor in recent days of electing me a member of parliament ... I communicate to you that I will not aspire to or accept -- I repeat not aspire to or accept -- the positions of President of Council of State and Commander in Chief," Castro said in the statement published on the Web site of the Communist Party's Granma newspaper.

The National Assembly or legislature is expected to nominate his brother and designated successor Raul Castro, 76, as president. The younger brother has been running the country since emergency surgery to stop intestinal bleeding forced Castro to delegate power July 31, 2006.

The title of "Comandante en Jefe" or commander-in-chief, was created for Castro in 1958 as supreme leader of the guerrilla forces that swept down from the mountains of eastern Cuba to overthrow U.S.-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista.

Castro's retirement draws the curtain on a political career that spanned the Cold War and survived U.S. enmity, CIA assassination attempts and the demise of Soviet Communism.

A charismatic leader famous for his long speeches delivered in his green military fatigues, Castro is admired in the Third World for standing up to the United States but considered by his opponents a tyrant who suppressed freedom.

His illness and departure from Cuba's helm have raised doubts about the future of the Western Hemisphere's only communist state.

"Fortunately, our Revolution can still count on cadres from the old guard and others who were very young in the early stages of the process," Castro said in his statement.

"They have the authority and the experience to guarantee the replacement," he said.

The streets of Havana were empty and news of Castro's retirement from politics had not reached Cubans yet by radio or the printed edition of Granma.

"It was logical for Fidel to quit because he has been saying that he is not well," said a musician who was leaving a cabaret. "But nothing will change until the government makes the economic reforms that Cuba needs," he said.

President George W. Bush, in Rwanda as part of a trip to Africa, had no immediate comment on Castro's plans to step down, White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said on Tuesday.

Castro has only been seen in pictures since then, looking gaunt and frail, though his health improved enough a year ago to allow him to keep in the public mind writing reams of articles published by Cuba's state press.

"This is not my farewell to you. My only wish is to fight as a soldier in the battle of ideas. I shall continue to write under the heading of 'Reflections by comrade Fidel.' It will be just another weapon you can count on. Perhaps my voice will be heard. I shall be careful," Castro said.

Castro could remain politically influential as first secretary of the ruling Communist Party and elder statesman.

Raul Castro, Cuba's long-standing defense minister, has run raised expectations of economic reforms to improve the daily lot of Cubans since standing in for his brother, but he has yet to deliver.

(Reporting by Anthony Boadle, Editing by Eric Walsh)

Hillary Clinton & Clinton Racist Staffers Use Obama "Plagiarism" Accusations

Hillary Clinton and the Clinton Campaign Managers are being racist in my view, and that includes the new campaign head, Maggie Wiliams, who's Black but is so into the campaign and wanting to please Senator Clinton she can't see straight. She's got to wake up.

This is why. Look, they've accused Obama of "just words" and not speaking on policy substance and the hidden rule is that Black politicians like Obama and Deval Patrick, the Governor of Massechusetts, talk in inspiring terms, but are weak on policy, which is another veiled way of saying..

They're not intelligent because they're Black.

That's right. That's what Hillary Clinton is saying. That's why Barack Obama went to Governor Patrick and borrowed the retort Obama recited last Saturday in Wisconsin. Because both Obama and Governor Patrick faced the same racist approach from opposition White candidates who implied that in some way they were not good at talking about policy or providing substance and while they don't say "it's because they're Black" the implication is obvious.



Hillary Clinton should be totally ashamed of herself. Her staffers too. They've been trying to position him by first saying he' like or trying to compare himself to Martin Luther King, who Senator Clinton dissed when she basically said MLK could not do a thing without President Johnson's help.

See the connection? Clinton compares Obama to MLK , then says MLK needs a president, which could not be Obama because he can't talk policy; that's a strategy Governor Patrick recognized and so do I -- and it stinks to high heaven.

The Clintons can't help themselves. First it's the Muslim charge; then Martin Luther King; then falling asleep at an MLK Day speech, then saying that certain Obama wins don't matter because many of the voters were African American -- it goes on and on and on and the Mainstream Media just lets' them do it.

I wish someone at CNN, FOX, or MSNBC would grow a spine and start pointing this out. This is sick! I for one, am tired of it.

Sacramento Kings Cheerleader Photo Scandal - Kings Cheerleader Calendar Now Hot Property

As you may have heard, the Sacramento Kings Cheerleaders have decided to take photos of themselves that are simple, racy, and soft-core porn at best. All good reasons to take a bit of a time out from politics -- after all, Bill O'Reilly did. What led to these photos being taken and distributed is a good question. I've not found the answer.

The photos are a year old and I'm interested to know as they came out after Valentines Day. Was a jealous ex-boyfriend behind the Sacramento Kings Cheerleader scandal? Did he decide to "out" the group as a whole? Or was it an angry ex-cheerleader who didn't make the cut this time around?

Regardless of the culprit, it's clear that there are at least two groups happy: the Kings fans and Carl's Jr, who's logo is on the dance team photo on the website. If Carl's Jr. is smart, they'll find a way to link this to hamburger sales!

Whatever the case, man, they sure do have great legs!

Big Head DC Getting Lesson In Blog Law | Big Head DC Bullying Stopped By Zennie

Big Head DC is a respectable publication on politics in DC. I enjoy reading it. But I did not like one of Big Head DC's blog articles where he -- the "he" is Rob Capriccioso (pictured) who's the editor of Big Head DC -- accused ABC News anchor Sam Donaldson of being a client of a DC madam named Deborah Jeane Palfrey and basically just because his name happened to be in her phone book and even though Deborah Jeane Palfrey who's the escort, explained to Rob that she had just called him to explain a phone mix-up, and not to offer services.

Plus, Jossip explained "Except all Palfrey had to say to Capriccioso was that she made a single call to Donaldson — to explain a phone call mix up, not to offer her services...Not that it stopped Capriccioso’s report.."

Rob went ahead and wrote an account that in my view smeared Sam Donaldson and left out that the matter seemed to be a total misunderstanding. I wrote that Big Head smeared Sam Donaldson. That's my view and I'm sticking to it.

Now, Rob, who thinks he can bully people, has threatened to sue me. HA! This is what Rob wrote to me:

To Zennie:

It has come to my attention that one of your blog posts contains factually incorrect information about Big Head DC and our reporting:

http://zennie2005.blogspot.com/2007/11/rob-capriccioso-smears-sam-donaldson.html

Sam Donaldson's number does indeed appear more than once in the records of Deborah Jeane Palfrey, which is exactly what Big Head DC reported. By you saying that "Rob Capriccioso Smears Sam Donaldson With Wrong News" and "this blogger got it wrong," you are libeling the reputation of Big head DC. As the editor of Big Head DC, I ask that you remove or edit your post to accurately reflect our reporting.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Sincerely,

Rob

To which I showed Rob how the Internet had rose up against him. For example, let's take the website i linked to in the orginal story, and the one that was the basis for my assertion that Big Head DC smeared Sam Donaldson, the one called Radar and apparently one where Rob had a relationship with the writers there -- not any more.

In Radar, D.C. CONFIDENTIAL explained that "Capriccioso found out about Donaldson's involvement from Radar. We were looking into the Donaldson rumor and stupidly asked Capriccioso, who claimed to have a relationship with Palfrey, to talk to her about it. We decided not to pursue the item for reasons explained below, so he picked it up for himself without so much as a "thank you" or heads-up."

DC CONFIDENTIAL goes on..

"After receiving many calls from Sam Donaldson leaving pleasantries for his releative [sic] on her personal cell number voicemail in the mid-2000s, Palfrey herself decided to give him a call to relay what she assumed to be a mistake. 'Would you please tell your relative to give out the correct phone number?' Palfrey recalls asking Donaldson. 'I was sick and tired of getting these phone calls from people all over Washington asking for his relative.' When she talked to Donaldson, he was immediately panicked and asked how she got his number (she says she didn't tell him that she ran an escort service). She explained the whole story to him about her receiving messages that were obviously not intending for her."

When Radar expressed skepticism, Capriccioso wrote back: "I pushed her hard on that—asked her if she had an affinity for Sam for some reason, and told her that many people would think it was such an odd coincidence that he dialed the wrong number ... she insisted that that was the truth."

The only parts of the above story that made it into Capriccioso's post are the parts about Palfrey confirming a call to Donaldson and Donaldson panicking at the call. The innocent explanation Palfrey offered apparently wasn't relevant.

Radar eventually dropped the item after being waved off of it by a source close to Larry Flynt, the porn magnate who outed Vitter and has been poring over the list. The source insisted that if there was anything to the Donaldson rumor, Flynt would have reported it. Given that, and Palfrey's insistence that Donaldson was not a client, we couldn't sully the man's name in the absence of any other evidence—even if we think Palfrey's story is bullshit. Capriccioso, who didn't return a call for comment, apparently didn't have that problem.

Wow. Which means that DC CONFIDENTIAL didn't even want to run with the story that Rob ran with. Why? Because it makes Donaldson look like he did something in hiring an escort that it's not clear he did at all. Plus, not even Larry Flynt reported the story because he considered it baseless.

Thus, Rob's actions are a real defamation of character in anyone's book, and certainly mine. But Rob thinks he has a case to threaten me. Let's check his claim for fun.

What Rob does not understand is that several bloggers don't back his story, thus leaving it fair game for attack. It's impossible to make a defimation claim stick if the plaintiff does not have a good reputation to start with and in this case of this story, Rob is toast -- he looks bad, indeed.

Moreover, I can state my opinion and I did that. Too bad for him. Moreover, Rob -- by virtue of his blogging and his terrible reporting being all over the Internet on the Donaldson story -- has become a public figure who can be criticized and that's what I did.

And here's the smoking gun: Blogactive has written that Big Head DC's story was so not credible they considered never linking to his work again! Here's what they wrote:

More discrediting

I've taken some heat in the comments of my last post. Please note that I never said it didn't happen. I simply said that it APPEARED that BigHeadDC was hustled by a hustler.

I contacted Rob at BigHeadDC and asked him specifically about the information he posted with regard to Sam Donaldson's number appearing in the DC Madam's, Jeane Palfrey. Once the story was discredited by Radar, I decided to dig a little deeper. It was only about five minutes before I was able to put my shovel down on this angle to the story.

I happen to know Jeane Palfrey. So, I wrote a note last night:

From: Michael Rogers - PageOne
Date: Nov 27, 2007 3:21 PM
To: jeanepalfrey@_______.com
Subject: Jeane...
Jeane...

Can you let me know if this article is accurate and whether you have any on or off teh record comments about it?

Thanks!
Mike
In less than 12 hours, Jeane wrote back:
From: Jeane Palfrey
Date: Nov 28, 2007 12:32 AM
To: Michael Rogers

Mike… the Radar article is correct.
-Jeane

This exchange, along with numerous friends in the media telling me about other other stories that were wrong on BigHeadDC, has initiated a review with Nick Langewis, the associate editor of PageOneQ, over whether BigHeadDC will ever be linked to from Q again. If we decide not to link there again, it will be the first time a site has been permanently banned from PageOneQ.

In this business, accuracy is everything.

It sure is, right Rob? Even Jossip has exposed Rob's tendency to TRY and bully other bloggers into compliance with his biased reporting. Check what Rob wrote to a Leigh Ann Boutwell , who's Jossip's managing editor.

From: Rob Capriccioso
Date: Nov 13, 2007 11:02 AM
Subject: From Rob Capriccioso / action requested
To: Leigh Ann Boutwell
Hi Leigh Ann,
What John Cook wrote yesterday in his Fresh Intelligence update is
exceptionally unprofessional, and riddled with errors. To clarify, a
Big Head DC staffer received more confirming information regarding the
“DC Madam” / Sam Donaldson story, and we ran with it. Neither I, nor
Big Head DC, had any obligation to run this story with Radar Online.
Apparently, John Cook felt differently, and published a story that not
only misspells the name of Palfrey in a couple of different ways, but
also makes it seem as if the story isn’t true, which it is.
Cook also quoted several off the record e-mails between myself and
Tyler Gray, which, as you know, is very unprofessional. I find this
quite odd, since Tyler, too, has shared much off the record
information with me via e-mail that he has asked me not to publish.
Cook also says in the item that I didn’t return requests for comment,
which is not at all true, as you will see from the e-mails below,
which Radar had in its possession before the update story ran.
To resolve this issue ASAP, I am asking that Radar remove, or amend
with this added information, Cook’s false Fresh Intelligence piece.
Sincerely,
Rob
–
Rob Capriccioso | Publisher & Founding Editor | Big Head DC |
bigheadDC.com | rob@bigheadDC.com | AIM: bigheadrob007

Action requested? Geez. Gimme a break. Matt Janovic said it best in a comment over at Radar:

Again, what happened between Radar and Bighead? They wanted the SMUT, but Ms. Palfrey wasn't going to confirm it to Mr. Capriccioso, so he went and submitted the story anyway. But there was a problem of confirmation: Deborah Jeane Palfrey. She's not going to confirm it because there was never a story to begin with. Her assertions are true, while those of Radar and Bighead are not. They wanted a story that was an easy fix, didn't get it, and went and ran it anyway. Now they have to do the clean-up.

The End Of American Hegemony - AntiWar

AntiWar, the website against the Iraq War and violent conflict in general, has an article worthy of note called "Can The US Brace Its Fall?" It asks if America is ready for a world where it's no longer the most influential nation. My response is that it depends.

I think we are if we elect leaders who recognize America's new, more complex position in the World. Senator Barack Obama does; Senator Clinton and certainly Senator McCain far less so. If we can get the "hawk" element of U.S Government under control and adopt a more intelligent and less "cowboyish" and power-hungry approach, we can do this.

The 2008 Presidential election will tell much for the future.