Operation OUTROVE: Step One

I've been harping about Greg Palast's Bush/Barnes/GTech story all weekend. And unfortunately, I seem to be the only person in the blogosphere who has caught onto it, and that's a huge problem since I'm not widely read. I plan on digging for more facts about the story (some people would call that journalism), and then trying to get the A-List bloggers to pay attention to it.

First, I'll repeat the jist of Palast's article. Then I'll rundown the steps of "Operation OUTROVE," where eventually I'm going to ask you, dear reader, to also get off your rump and do something.

First, Palast's story:

• He covered a confidential letter, sent anonymously to U.S. Attorney Dan Mills in Austin, from some Justice Department doucments
  
• The letter details how Bush made a deal with Barnes.
  
• Barnes kept his mouth shut about Bush getting favorable treatment when being assigned to the National Guard
  
• Bush wouldn't let GTech lose its billion dollar Texas State Lottery contract
  
• Barnes was GTech's chief lobbyist in Texas
  
• GTech gives Barnes $23 million in return for the deal he made with Bush
  

The letter was sent anonymously and not dated. Apparently, Dan Mills is actualy an assitant U.S. Attorney, and judging from this article, he still appears to be in Austin.

I'm going to try calling him tomorrow and see if I can get more information about the letter and what was done with it.

I know an anonymous letter sent to an assistant U.S. Attorney is pretty suspect, could be a hoax, and maybe we shouldn't believe a word of it. However, if a letter like this turned up about Kerry, the rabid right, and then the mainstream press, would be all over it. But Palast first reported on the existence of this letter in February of this year, and still nobody is talking about it. Not the press, but more importantly right now, not the left wing bloggers.

Just looking over Atrios this morning, I see another entry about fucking typewriters, and a flyer for Bush for his 1978 Congressional campaign where he lied about his military service. Both of these stories are counterproductive to the cause of getting him out of office. I am convinced that the memos are forgeries planted by Rove, and any talk about them acts as a smoke screen to keep us from talking about the real story involving Bush/Barnes/GTech which was on the cusp of making it into the mainstream. Therefore, here's plank one of Operation OUTROVE:

• STOP TALKING ABOUT TYPEWRITERS, FORGERIES, AND MEMOS

Talking about this "issue" means you're only playing into the hands of Rove's strategy.

Plank two of Operation OUTROVE:

• EMAIL THE A-LIST BLOGGERS ABOUT THE ACTUAL STORY
  
• POLITELY TELL THEM TO SHUT UP ABOUT TYPEWRITERS AND FORGERIES
  

Emailing the editors of mainstream press publications is great, and necessary, but unless we can generate a lot of emails then it's alo pretty useless. So email Atrios, Kos, Pandagon, Kevin Drum, Josh Marshall, and whoever else you can think of. Hell, firing off emails blogs like corrente and Needlenose, non-A-Listers who receive a lot of hits, may help. If they run with this story, it may be pushed onto the A-List blogs.

The key goal here is to get this story into the mainstream press, because this certainly shouldn't be the only place where it's discussed. I know to some this may sound like self-promotion on my part, but honestly, I could give a damn about the hits and could care less if you cite this blog or not when emailing an A-Lister. The point is to spread this story. It's too important to allow allegations of corruption and yet another Bush lie sit on the back burner when they could really damage Bush's campaign. So, I beg of you, please stop talking about typewriters and let's get to the real news.

I'll try to get ahold of Mr. Dan Mills in the morning. Or afternoon, depending upon when I wake up. I'm dead tired right now, so blogging for tonight is done.