SHOCKER: Joe McGinniss’s Credibility Destroyed by E-Mail to Jesse Griffin; UPDATE: Griffin Does Not Deny E-Mail

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“Jesse Griffin, the Alaska blogger who Saturday claimed in an ‘exclusive’ report that Todd and Sarah Palin were divorcing, will no longer work as an Anchorage kindergarten teaching assistant, school officials confirmed Wednesday.
“Griffin’s resignation followed revelations that the 49-year-old Griffin had posted (under the alias ‘Gryphen’) sexually explicit advocacy of pornography and masturbation on his ‘Immoral Minority’ blog.”
— Robert Stacy McCain, Aug. 6, 2009

“I was introduced to author Joe McGinniss, who is up here researching HIS Sarah Palin book, and who also turned out to be a huge fan of both AKM’s and I.”
— Jesse Griffin, Oct. 3, 2009

Having previously expressed shock that Joe McGinniss would associate with a proven liar like Jesse Griffin, it was an even greater shock today to see that Andrew Breitbart has reprinted what appears to be an e-mail from McGinniss to Griffin.

And I say “what appears to be” an e-mail, because neither Griffin nor McGinniss has acknowedged the e-mail. It would be incredible that (a) McGinniss would have been such a fool as to trust someone as dishonest as Griffin with confidential communication of any kind, and (b) Breitbart managed to obtain such an e-mail. So, having stated these caveats . . .

HOLY F–KING CRAP!

From: Joe McGinniss
To: Jesse Griffin
Sent: Thursday, January 27, 2011 6:15 PM
Subject: I have to ask you for help

Jesse–

Legal review of my manuscript is underway and here’s my problem: no one has ever offered documentation of any of the lurid stories about the Palins. . . .
[Y]ou write frequently that you know things you can’t yet post, but that soon “all will be revealed.” This has been going on since I first became aware of your blog, but as far as I know you haven’t substantiated a single claim or provided verification for a single rumor that you’ve posted about Sarah’s personal life, or the personal lives of any Palin family members. . . .
Neither from you, the Enquirer, AlaskaWTF, palingates.com or anyone else, have I seen a credible, identified source backing any of the salacious stories about the Palin family.
Thus — as Random House lawyers are already pointing out to me — nothing I can cite other than my own reporting rises above the level of tawdry gossip. The proof is always just around the corner, but that’s a corner nobody has been able to turn. . . .

If this e-mail is legit, McGinniss has made an admission so absolutely devastating that Random House would be entirely justified if they recalled the book, pulped it, and sued McGinniss for breach of contract.

Forget for a moment what McGinniss says about the “tawdry gossip” he repeated in the book and instead focus on this: McGinniss was privately communicating with — and revealing privileged information about his discussions with Random House lawyers to — an infamously untrustworthy person, who fabricated a clearly false divorce rumor about the Palins, and who was fired from his school job because of his NSFW blogging about pornography and masturbation.

For McGinniss to be associated in any way with a dishonest smear merchant like Griffin is bad enough. For McGinniss to be communicating in such a confidential and familiar way with Griffin — to divulge such things in writing, ending with a fond expression that he is “looking
forward to seeing” Griffin — reveals McGinniss to be a man of profoundly bad judgment.

McGinniss provides Griffin with a laundry list of “tawdry gossip” for which he admits there is absolutely no factual basis yet — as Andrew Breitbart details in a separate post — nearly all those salacious stories are included in McGinniss’s book as if they were true, and have been cited by the media as “revelations” allegedly unearthed by McGinniss’s investigative journalism!

READ THE WHOLE THING

UPDATE: At his blog, Jesse Griffin has confirmed — by not denying — the authenticity of the e-mail published by Breitbart:

[A] leaked email between Joe McGinniss and myself . . . is making the rounds, suggesting that Joe did not have the facts to back up the allegations in his book. (By the way he certainly does.)
Yes I have seen the article, as well as the vicious attacks directed at Joe and myself.
However at this time I cannot provide a comment because I believe that there is an ongoing investigation.
What I can tell you right now is that I DID NOT leak, or provide access, to any e-mails between myself and anyone else. Period!
I will also let you know that I will not help to provide traffic to that site by allowing a conversation about the article on this blog. I apologize, as I really dislike censorship, but I am sure you understand the decision.

Griffin’s nonsense about “an ongoing investigation” is obviously just a smokescreen to cover his own stupidity. In all likelihood, Griffin forwarded the McGinniss e-mail to people he thought he could trust, attempting to solicit their assistance. Griffin is such a damned fool he probably can’t remember who he sent it to, and he probably doesn’t even understand how damaging the e-mail is to McGinniss’s credibility.

BTW, readers are invited to contribute to my “unauthorized biography” of Levi Johnston’s sister, who is rumored to be one of McGinniss’s sources. I’m using The Joe McGinniss Method of Investigative Journalism, where vaguely sourced gossip is treated as fact.

UPDATE II: Attempting to defend himself, McGinniss e-mails Mediaite:

My email to Jesse Griffin was an effort to secure Alaskan help in obtaining further corroboration of allegations about Sarah Palin that came to my attention during my research. My reporting continued beyond the date of the email, and only information that checked out to my satisfaction and that of my publisher was included in the book. Ultimately, I published only those allegations which I found to be credible. Other allegations that could not be sufficiently verified, including some of those referenced in my email, are not in my book.

Again, refer to Breitbart’s point-by-point analysis of how the “tawdry gossip” appears in McGinniss’s book. Nearly every item on the list that McGinniss described to Griffin as lacking “substantiation” was included in the book with no proof whatsoever and usually with extremely vague attribution as to the sources making the claims.

It would appear, then, that McGinniss is offering as corroboration only his own personal judgment as to which allegations were “credible.” Other than Palin’s known political enemies — Colleen Cottle, John Stein, et al. — there are no named sources for these claims and, as Breitbart notes, McGinniss’s rather artful attributions to Cottle and Stein indicate that they are merely relating second-hand local gossip. But the subtitle of McGinniss’s book is not “Second-Hand Gossip From Wasilla, Alaska,” it’s “Searching for the Real Sarah Palin.”

What does this ugly and utterly unsubstantiated gossip, repeated by Palin’s enemies, have to do with “the Real Sarah Palin”? Nothing at all, except perhaps to indicate what a malicious pack of jackals her enemies are. And there is something profoundly ridiculous about idea that someone who relies on Jesse Griffin for research assistance is a sound judge of what is “credible.”

Keep Plunging the Stake Into the Heart of the Social Security Vampire, McCarthy

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by Smitty

The Great Tea Party Awakening continues apace, thanks to this sort of truth telling:

As a great admirer of your work, I’m very surprised by your claim that Social Security’s designers and perpetuators have not attempted to perpetrate a fraud. The program was hatched in fraud. As I pointed out yesterday, FDR pretended it was an insurance program in order to sell it to the public; once Congress enacted it, he then told the courts it was not an insurance program but a tax in order to get it upheld (by justices he had successfully intimidated with a court-packing plan). He later admitted that disingenuously portraying the tax as a contribution for earned insurance benefits was “politics all the way through.” The goal was never to make the economics work. As you correctly point out, they don’t work, and FDR was well aware of that fact. The goal was to make sure, as he put it, that “no damn politician can ever scrap my social security program.” Fostering a sense of public entitlement, he presciently reasoned, would induce politicians to position themselves as defenders of this entitlement — and never you mind the math.

Furthermore, the real objective of Social Security was not to set up a retirement insurance program. It was to lay the foundation for a full-blown entitlement state, complete with socialized healthcare. The original plan included a Medicare component, which was abandoned because FDR realized it would jeopardize passage of social security. (The push on Medicare, as I’ve recounted before, was renewed immediately after passage — although it took 30 years, due to deep opposition from the public and the medical profession.) As Gov. Perry points out in his book, while feigning to address a “crisis,” Social Security (like Obamacare) collected the taxes (“contributions”) for several years (from 1935 to 1942) before any benefits were paid out; and the eligibility age was pegged at 62 even though life expectancy was then 60. The goal was not to ensure a decent retirement for “beneficiaries”; it was to erect — in incremental stealth — an entitlement state that the public would never have supported if Progressives had been forthright about their ambitions. Social security was the foot in the door.

It’s a shame we can’t have this awakening without one mother of an economic hangover.

Also a shame: RINO squishes. The Founding Fathers frown, T-Paw.

The Death of a Cop-Killer

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I haven’t blogged about last night’s execution of convicted Georgia cop-killer Troy Davis, in part because Ann Coulter and Ace of Spades already said pretty much what needed to be said. There isn’t really any need for me to dogpile the story except to observe that, even if you have doubts about the death penalty in general, executing cop-killers seems necessary to a civil society.

When a violent criminal is confronted by police, do we want the criminal to surrender peacefully? Or do we want every arrest to turn into a violent struggle in which the police officer’s life is at risk? If the policeman’s safety is not worth defending by the strongest possible penalties, no one’s life is safe — not even the criminals the policeman pursues.

Think about it: If the cop knows a rapist or armed robber is likely to shoot him, why shouldn’t the cop just shoot first, claim self-defense and be done with it? Continue reading The Death of a Cop-Killer →

Let’s Not Go Lefty Over Technology

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by Smitty

Twitter is cool. You should follow me. Also, you should follow Ladd Ehlinger, a cat most cool, who shared a tidbit about Twitter:

Multiple conservative Twitter accounts are complaining that they are spontaneously “unfollowing” other conservative Twitter accounts. I’ve had it happen to me, where my account has “unfollowed” people without my consent or knowledge. Simple bug? Maybe.
An anonymous source, who claims to be with Twitter, contacted me today claiming that there’s a “hacktivist” on Twitter’s payroll who’s having a little fun at the expense of his ideological opponents. I can’t confirm this as just a simple rumor or hoax, since the upper
management of Twitter is beyond impossible to contact.

I’ve been hit with this, too. However, I’ve also been surfing quite close to the ‘follow limit’, which seems to be around 91% follow/following, as far as I can tell.

Could some smarmy Lefty be playing tee hee hee games? It’s not impossible, but what would you do? There is no evidence, and, even if you had some information, would there be a court case? I haven’t read the Twitter service agreement either, but I’m confident the service is made available on an “as is” basis.

Should we be upset? Let me say that I have been tinkering heavily with software across all operating systems and licensing regimes for a decade, and I say: no. We’re capitalists, and we’re getting what we pay for. If a free service is sucky, then it bespeaks a business opportunity. It’s actually feasible to acquire some hardware, load some open source software, arrange for internet presence, and set up shop. Oh, staffing, funding and eyeballs? Let’s go back in time and locate rich parents.

Are we willing to pay for some service level guarantee? I might not mind, but the value of Twitter diminishes as people eject in favor
of FaceBook.

As with YouTube, conservatives need to put a bit of thought into the value of the political expression under consideration, and be willing to pony up some treasure to protect it. It starts to sound Lefty if we get screwed with by the hypothetical tee hee hee employee and then whine as though some entitlement had been tarnished.

Starting With Bogus Principles Leads To Contradictory Beliefs

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by Smitty

Crooked Timber is one Lefty blog I have subscribed. “Contradictory beliefs,” by Chris Bertram, lays out four ideas which seem in tension, especially if you don’t believe in the market.

Belief 1: As a keen reader of Paul Krugman, Brad DeLong (yes, really), our own John Quiggin and other left-leaning econobloggers, I believe that most Western economies need a stimulus to growth, that austerity will be counterproductive, and that without growth the debt burden will worsen and the jobs crisis will get deeper.

The cart cannot be the horse. If you mistake momentum for stimulus, you can flatter yourself temporarily that the cart can drag the horse. Witness the global slowdown. Feel the folly of believing that the cart can be the horse.

Belief 2: As someone concerned about the environment, I believe that growth, as most people understand it, is unsustainable at anything like recent rates. Sure, more efficient technologies can reduce the environmental impacts of each unit of consumption, but unless we halt or limit growth severely, we’ll continue to do serious damage. There are some possibilities for switching to less damaging technologies or changing consumption patterns away from goods whose production causes serious damage, but the transition times are likely to be long and the environmental crisis is urgent.

Some people have played environmental fear like a Steinway. We are now in the process of calling all bluffs and fact-checking a few clowns. Why not wait until all the raw data are validated, and the models have a bit more review? It may well prove the case that these Lefty guilt-mongers are so full of hooey as to be overflowing.

Belief 3: Some parts of the world are just too poor to eschew growth. People in those parts of the world need more stuff just to lift them out of absolute poverty. It is morally urgent to lift everyone above the threshold where they can live decent lives. If anyone should get to grow their consumption absolutely, it needs to be those people, not us.

Look, you can’t care about the environment, and spread the guilt about economic growth, and then turn a blind eye to the purported deleterious effects, just because the effects land on a foreign country. Such ‘situation ethics’ are laughable. How condescending, bordering on raaaaacist, is it to permit ‘the other’ to live in economic squalor, just so they can ‘grow’?

Actually, you can, if you hate markets.

Belief 4: The relative (and sometimes absolute) poverty that some citizens of wealthy countries suffer from is abhorrent, and is inconsistent with the status equality that ought to hold among fellow-citizens of democratic nations. We ought to lift those people out of poverty.

How can you rate the abhorrence without context? What if people are, you know, happy where they are, e.g. the Amish? What if, like Iceland, the people, wittingly or no, supported untenable policies?

One is tempted to wonder if Bertram agrees with what I feel is the Most Risible Statement Ever By A Public Figure:

“the rule of law as an instrument of human redemption“

Do some believe any government implementing the rule of law can provide the answers to the ultimate existential questions? If so, then, it probably follows that such a government could provide all the stimulus, environmental management, growth, and wealth that anyone needs.

As a reader of this blog, you might have already glommed onto the fact that government is not god. Government isn’t even demi-god. Government maintains problems, while nattering on about solving them.

But the Bertrams will always be with us. Rather than taking initiative and doing, somebody will always be moaning about getting the government to pass a law and using force. See Buffet on paying more taxes. We must accept the Bertrams. As we care about preserving the country, we must keep the mockery heaped upon these anti-capitalistic ideas, and seek to minimize their impact on the market.

Sorry, Bertram: your contradictions will plague you until you fix your assumptions about the rightful place of government.

Via Instapundit, Philip Klein comes at the point thusly:

Obama thinks it’s OK for government to risk taxpayer money on business ventures that he deems worthy of investment. But he’s outraged at the suggestion that younger Americans be allowed to have more control over the allocation of their own tax dollars.
This derives from the liberal belief that a central authority run by experts will spend money intelligently (in the case of Solyndra, by jump-starting alternative energy), whereas individuals will act irresponsibly if left to their own devices (in the case of Social Security reform, by blowing their retirement on personal accounts).

Obligatory: Doug and Courtney Stodden Get a Reality Show Development Deal

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Wombat headlined this in “Live at Five,” but given how much attention we’d previously given the Hollywood teen bride, here’s some more:

Teen bride Courtney Stodden has signed a deal with a production company to produce her reality show Radaronline.com has exclusively learned.
The 17-year-old and her Green Mile actor husband Doug Hutchison have signed a deal with Roy Bank, the president of Merv Griffin Entertainment. . . .
“The reason we went with Roy is because we feel that he is the man who will be able to place Courtney’s show in front of the best network for her,” Krista Stodden, Courtney’s momager, told Radaronline.com. . . .
“They are going to be very, very open about their lives,” Courtney’s mom said. “They want everybody to see their life. Nothing is off limits.”

First of all, it’s necessary to explain what a “development deal” is: The producer has contracted with Hutchison-Stodden to develop a show, which the producer then expects to place with a network. So camera crews will now begin recording footage of the couple, which will then be edited into a rough-cut “episodes” and shown to network executives in “pitch” meetings.

It’s the reality-TV equivalent of a rock band signing with a producer to record a demo. Continue reading Obligatory: Doug and Courtney Stodden Get a Reality Show Development Deal →

Solyndra’s ‘Green Jobs’ Included Employment for D.C. Lobbyists — Including Former Democrat Aides

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Executives at bankrupt solar energy company Solyndra went on a lavish spending spree after they got a $535 million federal “stimulus” loan. This  Washington Post story is curiously vague about certain details:

Company executives ramped up their Washington lobbying efforts, hiring a former Senate aide to work with the White House and the Energy Department. . . .
[P]ublic records show that since 2008, Solyndra has spent more than $1 million on lobbying inside the Beltway.
Lobbying expenditures of $160,000 a year in 2008 and 2009 accelerated as Solyndra’s financial and political troubles mounted. By 2010, such spending had grown to $550,000. So far this year, Solyndra has reported spending $220,000, but that number will grow as more reports filter in.

The phrase “former Senate aide” caught my eye. For which senator had this lobbyist formerly worked? Tim Carney at the Washington Examiner has the answer:

Solyndra’s other well-connected lobbyists include green-lobbyist extraordinaire and former Appropriations staffer Steve McBee and John Kerry aide Gregg Rothschild.

Carney further reports that Solyndra’s lobbyists included Andy Quinn, former chief of staff for top Democrat Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland.

So it turns out the “green jobs” meant well-paid employment for lots of well-connected D.C. lobbyists. Good thing Nancy Pelosi drained the swamp and got rid of the Culture of Corruption, huh?

UPDATE: Just in case you’ve forgotten:

“The true engine of economic growth will always be companies like Solyndra . . . The future is here. We’re poised to transform the ways we power our homes and our cars and our businesses. And we’re poised to lead our competitors in the development of new technologies and products and businesses. And we are poised to generate countless new jobs, good-paying middle-class jobs, right here in the United States of America.”
— President Barack Obama, May 26, 2010

UPDATE II: Welcome, Instapundit readers!


Senator Frist Thinks ObamaCare Will Remain Undead

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by Smitty (via Digg)

Here is a cheery thought:

Frist told a Sioux Falls, S.D., audience Wednesday that even if the Supreme Court strikes down the individual insurance mandate at the core of the law, it can still be implemented successfully.

“It’s going to survive,” Frist said, according to the Sioux Falls Argus Leader. “It’s not going to be repealed.”

To be sure, the former Senate majority leader isn’t a fan of the individual mandate. He says it’s unconstitutional. Federal appellate courts havesplit on that question, and the matter ultimately will be decided by the Supreme Court.

Frist said other provisions in the law will inject enough money into the health care system even if most Americans aren’t required to buy insurance.

Republican candidates are going to have to run on scuttling this monstrosity, and then supported with a fat enough margin that it is gob-smackingly clear that this economy killer Must Go.

But we can’t stop there. Progressivism is an anti-liberty cancer. There can be no rest until the federal over-reach of Progressivism is completely amputated. Sorry to sound so firm on the point, but that’s the way it is.