I am working on my new auxiliary site and I would like feedback on the header image. Meanwhile, one of my correspondents says this:
Rumors are flying that the VP Dick Cheney may be part of Hookergate. If so, Washington D.C. Madam Deborah Jeane Palfrey‘s call-list may be the WMD that does in the Bush administration.
Wayne Madsen reported, “an extremely knowledgeable CIA and Pentagon source says that the former CEO who is on Deborah Jeane Palfrey’s list is Vice President Dick Cheney. Cheney was CEO of Halliburton during the time of his liaisons with the Pamela Martin & Associates escort firm. Palfrey’s phone invoices extend back to 1996 and include calls to and from Cheney.”
Madsen explains:
“May 12-13, 2007 — Hookergate involves fired US Attorneys. US District Judge for the District of Columbia Gladys Kessler, a Clinton appointee, has re-issued an order prohibiting DC Madam Deborah Jeane Palfrey from releasing any more phone lists of her Pamela Martin and Associates customers. Secrecy of the phone records has been a priority for DC Assistant US Attorney William Cowden. Palfrey released her 10 years of customer phone records to ABC’s “20/20” before Kessler’s March order prohibiting such a release took effect. As WMR reported, ABC and Disney, under pressure from the Bush White House, killed the story and stated that there were no “newsworthy” names on the Madam’s list. WMR has been informed by three well-placed sources that Vice President Dick Cheney, while a part-time resident of McLean, Virginia and while serving as Halliburton’s CEO, was a customer of the DC Madam.”
Read: Wayne Madsen Report.
I will of course be grateful to have the revelation of improprieties and iniquities bring down the Bush Administration, although I would rather it be done on the basis of the high crimes and misdemeanors we already know about.
As a person inhabiting South Louisiana for over 15 years, however, I must say that not all of this is news. It is common knowledge that Halliburton, the oil companies, and other oilfield services outfits are heavily involved in prostitution. It is how you reward new clients, keep your clients loyal, and so on, and it is how you pay people off under the table.
I talked to a man once who said he had driven a van for an oil company when he was young. This van delivered paper bags of cash, and girls. And my colleagues in the business school say this story is not at all fanciful. It does not surprise me at all that Cheney should be using similar strategies in Washington, and of course, using the facilities himself.
Axé.
coldhearted scientist وداد 
You posted on the two stories I was most fascinated by today. This one and the one about SLU and Randy Moffett’s serious blunder in firing a distinguished wetlands expert.
I’m trying to get more information about this apparent vengeance firing from friends at SLU. I’ll let you know if I can learn anything.
ON the Cheney story, I had confirmation from a friend in Washington that the story is all over everywhere, and they’re just waiting to see which major news organization will break it first. Since ABC now has all the records, it would seem logical that they would file it, but we know how reluctant the major networks are to offend the powers and principalities.
Damn! I referred to you as a he not a she on my blog. My apologies, and thanks for not calling my attention to it.
Reading your other posts, I realized my blunder.
Some very good writing here, especially enjoyed your series on scholarship.
If ol’ Dick-y boy gets it here, and Paris actually does jail time, I will be unnaturally happy for a long time.
I really like the header for your new site. Here are my impressions as a design person. Because of your title, the reader is expecting a seminar, and you have a view of some empty chairs through a doorway. This suggests that the visitor is being welcomed to a sit-down and have a conversation (if there were anybody in the chairs, it might be a view of eavesdropping, but the empty chairs give a the impression of you opening a door to a comfortable room.)
Thank you Joe and don’t worry, everybody who reads me says the style is masculine, even a computer program designed to analyze the gender of writing styles. Originally I tried to design the PZ character as race and gender neutral, and the result was people thought I was a Latin male – which is essentially what I am in my academic writing, so I guess there is no escaping (a) one’s actual training and (b) people’s suppositions. Anyway, now I’ve decided PZ is not race and gender neutral, but race and gender inclusive – i.e., any race or gender will do. I’d love to know if you find anything out about SLU.
Thanks for feedback Chaser, you are the only one … so the header image stays! And yes – won’t it be great if they nail Cheney … ! Jail time for Paris would be good too, get her off the television screens for a while.
Phillip Collins’ take on the DC Madam, is that her business was a CIA blackmail operation. Ms. Palfrey mentioned the Randy “Duke” Cunningham case intersecting with her investigation. That case involved the number three at CIA, Dusty Foggo, and Porter Goss. This could be much nastier than just a “nudge, nudge, wink, wink” good old boys playing naughty games and getting caught.
So: Cheney would have inadvertently become a client of a CIA blackmail operation…?…wouldn’t he have been too well informed, even back then, for that, or is he not as bright as I fear?
I agree with Chaser about the picture in your header — I love it. Still working on the SLU thing– Paul may have a copy of his address to the National Wetlands Award ceremony up on his website soon. I think it may offer a clue or two about what is happening. Meanwhile, the sources are burrowing in.
Unfortunately this sounds like good ol’ boy politics in Louisiana, and it reflects badly on the whole University system in La.
Joe
Gracias Joe! And I look forward to your discoveries.
Yes, it sounds exactly like good ol’ boy politics, and it reflects terribly on the universities, yes. The worst of it is, Kedder is actually in as good a position as he could be to contest all this, but they are probably doing a pretty good job of making even him feel isolated and powerless.