Julian Assange: I pitch, I don't catch

By Mona Goldwater, European Affairs Editor

In his first formal public appearance since being arrested on rape charges, Julian Assange told reporters that he planned to sue the Guardian--for libel!--over a book two of their writers published. The book quoted Assange as saying that if informers were killed due to his WikiLeaks disclosures, well, then, "they had it coming to them."

It's fascinating to see this champion of open-ness in government and the press now resorting to using the libel laws to go after his detractors.  There are a lot of things you can say about this, like "If you can't take the heat..." or "Beware when you spit in the wind, because the wind blows it back," or probably most accurately, borrowing a phrase from Tennessee Williams, "I pitch, I don't catch."

---o0o---

Did BHO play hide the salami with Vera Baker, or did The Enquirer pillage their medicine cabinet again?

By Pablo Fanque
All This Is That National Affairs Editor

The story of an alleged Barack Obama affair is based on unconfirmed allegations and the flimsiest possible whisperings.  As you know, however, The Enquirer has broken other unlikely/unbelievable stories in recent years; we're hoping they jumped the gun this time.   It's not a new story; let's face it, it's not even a news story. . .but it's breaking wider this time around. 

Earlier incarnations of the story were usually brushed aside as the ravings or deliberate disinformation of deranged bloggers.  However--and how times have changed!--the Enquirer picking up the story almost grants their (rather dubious)  imprimatur to the rest of the press.  Or at least the rest of the press willing to go way out on a limb.

The story alleged that BHO was caught in a Washington, D.C. Hotel with a former campaign aide, Vera Baker.  Baker was the Finance Director for Barack Obama's 2004 Illinois Senate campaign

The Enquirer writes:  "A confidential investigation has learned that Obama first became close to gorgeous 35 year-old VERA BAKER in 2004 when she worked tirelessly to get him elected to the US Senate, raising millions in campaign contributions."

Interestingly, the Wikipedia has an article on her under consideration for deletion.  There are numerous pictures floating around on websites and blogs that may or may not be Vera Baker.  By all reports, she is a good looking woman, for whatever that's worth.  You'd think it wouldn't be that hard to track down--she was an Obama campaign official in 2004. 

Investigators (not clear whose--Obamas?  The National Enquierers?) are searching for a hotel surveillance videotape.   According to The Enquirer, Baker has insisted in the past that "nothing happened" between them.  The magazine also reports that top anti-Obama operatives (could that be you Ex-Gov. Palin, tossing around your $12 million in royalties?) are offering more than $1 million to witnesses to reveal what they know about the alleged hush-hush affair.

Someone has apparently offered cash to a limo driver who says that he took Vera to a secret hotel rendezvous in a Washington hotel where Obama was staying in 2004.   "A reporter confirmed the limo driver's account of the secret 2004 rendezvous and has also learned that on-site hotel surveillance video camera footage could provide indisputable evidence to the investigation."

Sandrarose.com claims "the Hillary Clinton campaign dug up background information on Barack Obama’s mistress, Vera Baker, in 2008, but decided not to run with the scandal — probably because Hillary knew she would lose the campaign and might need a favor from Obama later on."

Another blogspot blogger writes that "the woman was purportedly sidelined from her duties after Senator Obama’s wife, Michelle, became convinced that he had developed a personal friendship with her."

Without any new, concrete evidence, it seems like this story is destined to fade away quickly, just as it has when it has appeared before in the fringe press, or, new media as they prefer to be called.

---o0o---