This diary is to serve as a time-line of the attempts by Larry C. Johnson, former intelligence officer of the CIA and vocal Hillary Clinton supporter, to take his own personal train and derail it as close to the city of Bitterville as he can get.
I'll show you how I don't think he's evil, he's just desperately trying to cover his ass in the face of unsurmountable facts: that he's pinning too much hope on a tape that, apparently, only Republicans have seen. Or maybe anyone can buy it. Or maybe it's not a tape after all. Either way, someone has taken Larry C. Johnson's overwhelming desire to want something and used that to make him look a fool.
And how, ultimately, Larry C. Johnson may turn out to be this year's Dan Rather. And how it's his own fault. There are twists of words, changing stories, and even doctored Wikipedia entries and doctored pages from Larry's own site to go through. Only venture in if you have time to finish the read!
More, below the fold...
May 14: First inklings of a smear - according to Wiki...
On May 14, 2008, after Obama appeared to lock up the Democratic nomination, Johnson wrote "Hillary needs to stay in the campaign till the end because by the time August rolls around the damage to Barack will be so significant that rational folks will realize he is unelectable notwithstanding the mess Republicans have made of things.
And then it says nothing about events that happened two days after. Which is weird, because up until this morning, it did.
(cur) (last) 13:45, 5 June 2008 Calton (Talk | contribs) (37,510 bytes) (→2008: remove rumor-mongering. He wants the publicity, let him generate it for himself) (undo)
Here's what it originally said. The numbers are links, which I have added (they link to the NoQuarterUSA web site).
On May 16, 2008, Johnson reported having contact with three Republican insiders and another unspecified source who claim the existence of a videotape of Michelle Obama, Barack Obama's wife, speaking at the Trinity United Church of Christ and using the term "whitey" on multiple occasions."[42] Johnson reported that the tape would be worth $1 million to anyone who could provide a copy to an unnamed billionaire Republican." [43]
I don't know why someone would remove this information. Larry already has the eggs all scrambled (as you'll see later), it's only fitting we let him apply them to his face. But I'll let other Wikipedia editors sort it out amongst themselves. One of them believes it was Larry himself that did the alteration. We'll look at this from a positivist POV instead: as this diary is about how Larry Johnson is tying himself in knots in his own words, we'll use his own words with an update. Link [42] said that four people have come forward (and later, he will say five sources).
REMEMBER: it's a videotape. Definitely a videotape. He was told so, by reliable sources. And no Republican has a copy yet, because it's worth a million if you find it. Like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Or something.
June 1: The smear hits False Noise - here's the video, supplied from a YouTube user called NoQuarterUSA (quite possibly Larry himself)...
Here's the weaselly way that Roger Stone, GOP 'strategerist', puts it:
There's a buzz which I now believe to be credible that some indelible record exists of public remarks that Michelle Obama allegedly made which are outrageous at worst (erm, at best), but could be termed racist. Including some reference to white people as whiteys. Allegedly...
There's a lot of "I believe, allegedly" modifiers in those words. But if you think THAT'S a stretch, wait until you see the friend-of-a-friend part... he also calls Larry and his ilk "Clinton research people". We do know that Johnson has counseled Hillary Clinton during her campaign.
On Sunday, Larry posted the following:
BREAKING NEWS: Michelle’s Whitey Problem (Thread #2) »
By Larry JohnsoncloseAuthor: Larry Johnson Name: Larry Johnson
Email: larry_johnson@earthlink.net
THREAD #2 || Thread #1 is now closed.
New and dramatic developments. This is a heads up. I’ll post the news Monday morning by 0900 hours. Now I know why people who have seen the videotape say it is stunning. Barack’s headaches are only starting.
Before we go into this 'stunning' tape, here's a little fact. A simple WhoIs search (like checking ZIP codes, but for the net) for NoQuarterUSA shows the owner, administrator and technical person is...
Larry C Johnson
Private Registration
2316 Delaware Ave Suite #266
Buffalo
NY, 14216-2687 US
866-434-0212
866-434-0211
privacy(at)droa(dot)com
REMEMBER: it's definitely a tape. Larry has a quote from people that say it's "stunning". Four people have seen it, or are alluded to have seen it. And before 0900 hours Eastern, the stunning news will be posted.
June 2: the sunning news that's not so stunning - here is the only post on Larry's Fark-producing website for that day, before 0900 hours (screen grab).
Notice the change to the story? First of all, he knew people that had said the "videotape" was "stunning". Now, not even his sources (which had now grown from four to five) had seen the tape. Other people have told the five people that told Larry. None of the viewers of this videotape have actually contacted Larry himself. Which is odd, because he told everyone his Earthlink email address (bolded and italicized above). In effect, Larry C. Johnson was selling us a-friend-of-a-friend story, because someone said they saw something on a tape.
A look at NoQuarterUSA shows something else surprising. That 7.43 am story? Completely gone from where it was. Here's the gap between June 1 and June 2 now.
In fact, it has been pushed much further up the day.
Notice the time stamp has disappeared.
REMEMBER: the number has gone up from four to five. But none of them have seen it. But they know people that have definitely seen the videotape. And that's the stunning news. He knows people that know people that know something.
Oh, it gets better. One post on June 2 on NQUSA gives away what the REAL story is here...
FYI, for those expecting to SEE the tape, GET REAL. Read Larry Johnson’s description of what is ON the tape. That is the story.
The story isn't the tape. Just report that Larry Johnson knows some people that have talked to some other people that have seen something on a videotape. And anyone that thinks they can see what's on the tape? Get real, you'll not be seeing it!
June 3: Larry doesn't like it when you call Larry's bluff - to answer repeated requests from people to put up or shut up, Larry posts the following:
I never cease to be astonished by the base ignorance of the Obama crowd. They have spread the word claiming that I said I have the tape and was going to produce it. What? Nope. Nevr wrote that. They have a reading comprehension problem. If I had the tape I would put it up in a heartbeat. While it is true I am relying on second hand sources, my immediate sources are trusthworty. They are not related to each other. They hold different political views. But all tell the same story–there is a tape of Michelle Obama appearing at a conference with Louis Farrakhan had she says some very disparaging things about white people.
My sources tell me the Republicans who have the tape are hanging on to it and do not (I REPEAT FOR YOU OBAMA CLOWNS) DO NOT want it released now. They want to use it against Barky in the fall. They fear that releasing it now will kill Obama’s political support and open the door for Hillary. The tape, I am told, appears to have been made in June 2004. It was not part of a pulpit service at Trinity. It was a conference. I am waiting for confirmation of the specific conference.
And now we have Beckel and Fund claiming a tape exists and is coming out tomorrow. Would be nice but I don’t know. What I do know for a fact is that the folks who control the tape want to keep it on ice until after the Democratic convention in Denver. Whether they will achieve this is outside my knowledge.
So Larry posts that there's a tape, and something major will be released on Monday at 9am, and he accuses other people for assuming he actually has the goods he's bragging so much about? He doesn't even know if the tape exists himself, and one of the people he's trusting is Bob Beckel (the man that introduced "where the beef" into politics?!?
The other person is John Fund. Journalist for the Wall Street Journal. And, ironically, author of "Stealing Elections: How Voter Fraud Threatens Our Democracy" (Encounter Books, 2004, ISBN 1-59403-061-8). Some commentators claim that Rush Limbaugh's book "The Way Things Ought To Be" was ghostwritten by Fund:
Cynics may object that ghostwriters perform a valuable civic function by shielding the public from the authentically dimwitted voices of those they channel. To their way of thinking, no one would actually want to read a book written in Charles Barkley's own words; no one would want to read the unedited David Lee Roth; no one could possibly machete all the way through an unghosted Rush Limbaugh book. I disagree. Had Limbaugh written ''The Way Things Ought to Be'' start to finish, instead of collaborating with the sober John Fund, he might have been just feisty enough to print his unenlightened views on African-American football players years ago and laid all his race cards right on the table.
Remember yesterday it was Michelle and Louis Farrakhan? On June 3, Larry published the following picture.
Later changed to make it easier to get the connection...
The story that accompanies the picture's hilarious at the beginning...
Check out one facet of BARACK OBAMA’s "inner circle" — most of the women shown here represent a hidden inner circle that has played important roles in getting him elected. The Nation of Islam is not just another neighborhood group.
REMEMBER: not only does Larry know people that know other people that have seen a videotape that there's NO WAY you people will ever see before the GOP spring it as a surprise, even though the air's been let out of those tires... but Barack Obama is married to a woman that works as a Director for a University hospital, and she knows a Reverend that works for an organization set up by Jesse Jackson because his son's a Representative for the State of Illinois, and they went to a function once where the wife of Loius Farrakhan was too! In Chicago! And they're ALL BLACK!
BUT PAY NO ATTENTION. THE TAPE WILL BE RELEASED ON THE 4th!
That's the connection in the text of the image, by the way. PUSH is the Rainbow Push Coalition. It stands for People United to Save / Serve Humanity, and is a Jesse Jackson non-profit. They do nasty shit, like fight for social change. And you just know that Jesse Jackson is going to hang around people the CIA have interest in...
...and do forgive me for my ignorance of secret inner circles, but do they normally pose for photos where they are identified by name? And if there's an inner circle of powerful black women (because let's face it, who's more powerful than women or black people?), where's Oprah?
June 4: the tape gets released. Or maybe not. And it's not a videotape - a 'description' of the "videotape" comes out.
The "tape" is a DVD that Trinity United sold on its website ...
But I thought we weren't getting to look at it, and now you can buy it at Trinity? So how many hundreds of copies of this "rant" are there? If it even exists?
One thing you may have noticed, if you find the "Breaking News from HillBUZZ" story on NQUSA, is the specifics in the story. Names, locations, dates. Wow, it must be true with that much information...
Or maybe, just maybe, the HillBuzz blog people know how to Google stuff to concoct a convincing story...
When a rumor about a tape of Michelle Obama ranting and raving at Trinity first hit the blogs, we wondered if there was any truth to it. So, we just used Google to try as best we could to piece together her public schedule for the last few years, cross referencing that with the other clues that started coming out about what Michelle supposedly said, and who was with her when she said it. We just looked for times she was in Chicago before the national media would have been paying any attention to her (so, basically, everything prior to Barack Obama's speech at the DNC Convention in 2004: logic dictates she would be less inclined to rant and rave in public after she and her husband had a national profile). The break came when it was noted on the blogs that Michelle made her remarks with Mrs. Farrakhan at a panel discussion at Trinity. Having that, another Google search turned up the Jet magazine article, a trip to the Library to check out the microfiche of that issue got the photo of Michelle and the other panelists (with all their names), a Google search of those names all together got the schedule of events for the 2004 Rainbow/PUSH Coalition Conference, and that schedule ultimately led to the rest.
We have no idea if we are right, because we've never seen the tape.
I have a question for these people. HAVE YOU NEVER HEARD OF THE KILLIAN DOCUMENTS? I've posted before about how much stuff there is about you on the internet, so I for one am not impressed. A thousand people proving talking about the videotape DVD that people have seen people's connections have seen people's connections have claimed to have seen, and you can't see it yet you can get a copy of it from Trinity if they have any left ...is anyone else seeing a pattern here?
And Beckel? Fund? WHERE'S THE BEEF? No video was released.
June 5: and here we are - no video. NQUSA has, instead, decided to show that Obama is dividing the nation by posting things liek this:
That last image? On Photobucket under the username PatRacimora, in a story written by 'PatRacimora'. A quick Google search shows it to be SusanUnPC. Which means the people at NoQuarterUSA are now resorting to multiple personalities to make it look like more people write for them than actually do.
This is why Hillary absolutely should not even be offered the VP post. She's letting her attack dogs do the dirty work as she sits back.
Why isn't she calling her associate off? That's the story here. And the 'video': I can post a minute of video onto YouTube using DSL in less than 10 minutes. Put up or shut up.