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Friday, January 30, 2009

Karl Rove and Bill Postmus, Soul Mates?


Why we must demand accountability, objective standards, and absolute transparency


From Revolt in 2100 by Robert Heinlein


When any government or any church for that matter, undertakes to say to its subjects, “This you may not read, this you must not see, this you are forbidden to know,”the end result is tyranny and oppression, no matter how holy the motives. Mighty little force is needed to control a man whose mind has been hoodwinked; contrawise, no amount of force can control a free man, a man whose mind is free. No, not the rack, not fusion bombs, not anything – you can't conquer a free man; the most you can do is kill him.”


Revolt in 2100 is about a revolution against an evangelical religious state that using disinformation, coercion, and deceit took over America. The good guys are pro-freedom and in the book you see them carry out the restoration of real American government. The bad guys use torture, absolute monitoring, and the force of a state that has rewritten history to control the American people.


Written in 1939 the book was read widely by those in now in the freedom movement, that movement from which such individuals as Karl Rove, Grover Norquist, Newt Gingrich, John Fund, among others originated. Heinlein was writing a juvenile science fiction yarn using elements he perceived as potential and threatening to our freedom. That take over worked. The elements present today with the attempted use of biometrics, as applied to the Real ID, the monolithic control reinforced by the evangelical no-think churches, and the routine use of torture and construction of American concentration camps are hauntingly like what you see in the Heinlein novel.


All of the individuals above grew up on science fiction. Heinlein, a libertarian, was the Grand Master of that genre. This is most probably the origin of the approach used to subvert power in America and hand control over to those who lurk behind foreign corporations tied to the military-industrial complex, banking, Big Oil, and Big Pharma. Those interests are the clients that Rove and these others named serve. Among those corporations are many that are closely and privately held. Instead of the transparency that, on paper, we as Americans were guaranteed, we see only lies and a closed door.


The individuals named took as their model what science fiction fans would call, “the forces of darkness.” Today they continue to work for the same employers as they continue to use the Republican Party to divide America.


The Republican Stimulus Package: War


On Friday afternoon, January 16th, at 1:30 p.m., Congressman Joe Baca (D-43) hosted the first coalition of its kind to respond to Obama's challenge to stimulate the economy. Baca invited elected officials from both San Bernardino and Riverside Counties to sit down and discuss how the funds could be used to rebuild the badly decayed infrastructure in their area. The two counties, also commonly known as the Inland Empire have been the most heavily impacted by the meltdown in California. Foreclosures, lost jobs and despair light up the phones of food banks and in the offices of public officials every day.


Of the five Republican congressmen invited, David Dreier (R-26), Jerry Lewis (R-41), Ken Calvert (R-44), Gary Miller (R-42) and Buck McKeon (R-25) not one attended. All voted against the Obama package.


The cost of the Obama Stimulus Packages is high. The President has asked that billions be alloted for projects that rebuild desperately needed infrastructure while providing jobs lost during the last administration. But the same congressmen supported war in Iraq that destroyed the infrastructure of that country and cost far more. They also supported the exportation of American jobs to third world countries, placing many Americans out of work. They oversaw the administration of Federal funds that paid billions to companies building infrastructure, here and abroad, that are failing. Accountability and quality control have been non-existent.


The bridge which collapsed on Interstate 35 in Minneapolis in Aug., 2007 is just one example of a [problem of which many remain oblivious. The accident in Minneapolis killed 13 people and sounded a wake up call focusing attention on deteriorating infrastructure which cost millions to construct and billions to replace. Accountability for faulty construction is non-existent. Across the country, contractors involved figure among those who donate to Congressional campaigns, either directly of through their agents.


Inland Empire Toasted by Postmus


Simultaneous to the debate on the funding of the Stimulus Packages the Inland Empire witnessed the exposure of Bill Postmus, San Bernardino County Assessor. Postmus has long been known to idolize Karl Rove.


Postmus faces felony charges of drug possession. The disgraced Republican is under investigation by the District Attorney's Office for political malfeasance. $250,000 has been budgeted to pay the law firm retained to conduct the investigation. A recall petition by a broad spectrum of individuals and organizations will file a "Notice of Intention to Circulate Recall Petition" at the San Bernardino County Registrar of Voters office on Fri., Jan. 30, 2009. There will be a press conference in front of the Registrar's office at 4:00 p.m.


Ordinary Americans are fed up with divide and profit politics.


The Stimulus Package meeting of January 16th was attended by local officials who represented both major parties. The focus of their concern was their district and the needs of their constituents. Former California State Senator Don Rogers, a respected member of the Republican delegation, said of the Postmus indictment, “We need to clean our own house first. The man should resign and other Republicans should make sure that happens.” Anthony Adams, Republican County Chairman for San Bernardino has joined the call or Postmus to step down and save the millions a recall will cost.


Calls to the DC offices of the five Republican produced five press secretaries who were out to lunch or otherwise unavailable. Of the messages left none has been returned.


Will Republicans become obsolete?


Since the November election Republicans have confronted the need to take back their party. Taking it back brings into sharp focus from whom, bringing us back to the names above.


Locally both Republicans and Democrats agree in large that changes are necessary. They know money is in short supply and should not be wasted. Paul Pugh, the COO of Sequoia Valley Resource Corporation, who has worked in the Inland Empire said, “Politics has no part in this kind of decision. We need objective standards. And we need absolute accountability. We have the products to do the job. They cost no more and give us the same number of jobs locally. The age of greed is over.” Pugh is a life long Republican who also expressed concern for the direction his party has taken over the last decades. H proposed the following standard,


Stimulus funds should be granted only to companies that agree to:

High standards for quality for project longevity and durability in accordance to the guidelines provided by studies of technologies now available across the world. Products exist and can be used that reduce the carbon footprint at least 25% during construction. Longevity for high dollar projects must use only products that extend longevity to a millennium.

Absolute transparency – no contacts with private corporations.


To ensure that happens it is reasonable to exclude from consideration companies who have previously done work that failed the new standards.


Much is in motion. Will the Inland Empire exact accountability from Bill Postmus? Will Republicans meet the challenge to come together, despite the Republican delegation to Congress? The answers are coming and Robert Heinlein would have much to say if he still lived.


Friday, January 23, 2009

Healing America



Update: Stealing Truth - The John Fund Back Story

The Attorney General of New York has received the complaint as well as the incoming US Attorney General.


At the stroke of noon on Tuesday, January 20th, America breathed a sigh of relief that echoed across the world. I say that and I am a registered Republican who understands the cost of blowing the whistle on Bush and his associates. Of the many things that George Bush destroyed the Republican Party was only one institution. The GOP, once the proud advocate of freedom, was destroyed, its mission extinguished. Our economy, our rights, the Constitution, and the respect America once held across the world are also dead.


The least important of these is, of course, the GOP. It is not political parties that matter, but people. From the streets of America, where veterans pick through trash cans and from Gaza where children are dying from head wounds inflicted by bullets paid for by US taxpayers, it is people who are dying without hope.


At one second past noon on Tuesday, January 20th, a new president took into his hands the power to enact change. People across the country wept tears of joy. In Santa Fe 40 children, young teenagers, held their own inaugural party, recreating the event. They will never forget that moment.


Barack Obama has began a task of daunting proportions. Along with accountability, and the President has said this is also coming, Obama is calling for stimulus packages. These will jump start the economy and put Americans back to work. Obama named as his first priority America's infrastructure. Our bridges, our dams daily grow more degraded and dangerous to all of us. Engineers hold their breath as they monitor the deterioration, knowing lives are at risk as we saw in Minneapolis on Aug. 1, 2007. In California fifty percent of bridges are unsafe and those in charge know this.


Our veterans, who fought a war both unnecessary and criminal, are returning to homelessness, afflicted with Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome. We moved into the danger zone, unconscious of what was happening around us.


War was made on us by Bush and his predecessors, converting our governmental and economic infrastructure. Those who did this were motivated by greed. They intended to steal everything, including our future. What are bridges and dams but the visible part of the future we leave our children?


Romans built for millennia. Our bridges, dams and other public works projects were built to last just long enough for the politically connected contractors to cash their checks, paying off their political cronies.


All of them need to be held accountable. Go here to blow your whistle.


The problems we confront are enormous. By coming together we can solve those problems. Sharing information, identifying what works, and refusing to accept the status quo brings its own power. There was a time when families sat down together then Dad lost his job. They looked at the problem, deciding how to stretch the pennies. The president has given us such an opportunity. To use it effectively we, the people, need to ensure that the funds from the stimulus packages are used wisely. Those who will make those decisions locally and in Congress need to know the same old solutions from the same contractors cannot be trusted. These funds must be used to ensure rapid deployment of new technologies that last and provide jobs.


Paul Pugh, a long time environmentalist who owns Sequoia Valley Resources and has produced and tested many of the new technologies said, “Engineers realize now it is all about using the right product for the application. Archeology has part of the answer. We rediscovered how the Romans did it and went them one better. Pieces of clay pottery lasted thousands of years. Our products can do the same.”


Infrastructure built this way can be in use in the year 3000 for the same or less money, generating as many jobs now. These are technologies in use around the world. As Pugh says, “This is not rocket science.” Politics denied them to us before.


Changing how we build will change your own home. That home can become the heritage you leave your great-great grandchildren, it will need no energy for heating or cooling and generate all the power you need.


Returning veterans suffering from PTSD can restart their lives. Many see PTSD sufferers as permanently marginalized. Instead they can became the core for new ways to live well in community. All of us can and must do the same, we need to be open to new and better ways of living. If we take up that challenge we can build prosperous futures for ourselves as we rediscover what it means to be an American.


Michael Olson, the owner of Metrofarm and the author of the book of the same name has helped many begin making a living providing products close into urban areas, solving the problem of transport while providing healthier food options. Multiply him by thousands who have spent their lives on solutions that work. From transportation to communications there are solutions, not one but many. America Goes Home examines and lists solutions and you can find more yourself.


We can build bridges that span the centuries, leading to a sustainable future for our descendants.

NOW Indict George Bush, Indict Them All




UPDATE: Stealing Elections – The John Fund Back Story
January 16 – Nothing has been read from the District Attorney in New York. We now file the complaint with the Office of the Attorney General


American veterans are returning from Iraq to homelessness. As the economy melts down so do America's veterans. Tens of thousands who signed up to serve their country are now homeless, unable to function because of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or brain trauma Their condition was directly caused by the Bush Administration. They were told that war was necessary to our safety. It was a lie. Instead, it has lined the pockets of George W. Bush's core constituency.

Americans are struggling with conditions none of us ever imagined possible. Many are showing signs of PTSD themselves. They have never been to Iraq. The war came to them.

They used our banks, the stock market, the governmental agencies intended for our protection to allow them to put their hands in our pockets and steal us blind. By so doing they stole our homes, our retirement, our jobs, and all we need to survive. Then they put their hands back in our pockets and stole our future to reimburse their friends for the 'losses' they had suffered. Our veterans are victims of war, the war being fought not in Iraq but carried out against Americans in boardrooms, in Congress, from the White House, our courts, and through every institution for which we have paid.

If you follow the money you see who profited and who intends to continue being paid.

Last week I wrote an article about John Fund, pointing out how he abused the profession of journalism. Those who covered for Fund did so for profit. He went unpunished for the domestic violence he committed because he could and did use the power according him by the Bush White House and those who worked for them. A valuable operative, he was protected. That was one small story in a vast tapestry of action that has resulted in the present meltdown. But every story comes with links to other stories. George Bush did nothing alone. Every story will lead to others because, like Fund, few intend to go away as Bush will be gone next week.

The problems will still be with us until they are rooted out. They live lavish life styles. They intend to continue. Many of those whose direct action lead to the nightmare we are living are planning to spend June 7 - 19th on a cruise from London to Rome.

Dick Morris just announced in an email I received that, “John Fund, the famous Wall Street Journal writer and Fox News commentator will be onboard as well!” Morris goes on to say that, “John is one of the foremost pundits on economic and political matters. During today's turbulent economic times, he will offer you the insight you need.” and will be, “joining our roundtable as we discuss how to rebuild the Republican party after the 2008 disaster.”
The only disaster noted is their failure to continue in power.
While they cruise an 80 year old woman who a year ago lived comfortably in retirement will struggle to survive on the street. There are many like her. She was invested in Lehman Brothers. Close you eyes. Watch the lives of ordinary hard working people pouring into the pockets of men like Morris, Fund, Cheney and Bush.
We need the names, the facts, and the evidence. The men and women who caused the problems must be indicted along with Bush. We need to exact retribution or else it can and will happen again. Bad behavior always drives out good. When we see the guilty punished to the full extent of the harm done we will be on the way back to sanity.

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Stealing Truth: The John Fund Back Story


If the media had followed the clear rules they had written for themselves, would we now be on the express down elevator to a meltdown of global proportions? Likely not. We would have problems, but we would have seen them more clearly. We needed the truth. We did not get it, for perhaps as many reasons as there are individuals in journalism.
The first problem was that journalists so blithely ignored the standards of their profession.
The Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) has established a code of ethics. The tenets of this code are short, clear, concise, and well-founded. But there is no means of enforcement. If journalists would follow them, we could trust the media. Today most of us do not. If a journalist ignores their ethical obligations, either from sloth or a desire to profit, nothing can be done. If raiding the cookie jar can be carried out with impunity, then there will be no cookies. I know this, having raised several children.
The SPJ has existed since 1909, four years before the Federal Reserve Bank came into being. Their founders could have included Ida Tarbell, the journalist who caused the break up of Standard Oil, though the site does not mention her – an indomitable truth teller. Tarbell told the truth, but a handful of years later the dispersed Standard Oil was larger than ever and still carried out the same exploitive pattern of business.
The takeaway: having the truth does not automatically solve the problem. You need to use the truth to build the cultural tools that enact accountability. We need that accountability today as the world melts down around our ears. Those responsible for the economic collapse are getting bailouts. Those who will be forced to pay are losing everything.
It was not just banks or oil companies or the "military-industrial complex" of which Ike warned us, though the sense of immunity to accountability these corporate-cultural structures enjoy is another part of the problem. Many individuals made decisions they knew to be wrong. Along with those heading corporations, journalists were a pivotal part of this failure. They had ample opportunity to act ethically and make a decision that would have influenced the values by which all of us live, building the world through those uncounted separate choices. Unfortunately, they chose unwisely and unethically – and their bad choices drove out the good.
Large media (and non-media) corporations have swallowed up newspapers and other media outlets during the last few decades with alarming speed, with the goal being the use of these outlets as an extension of their control. Individual journalists did not have to cooperate – but they did, in large part. The lack of dispassionate, objective reporting in journalism morphed the profession towards use as a perpetual public relations service for those in power. The question became not "What is the truth?" but "What do you want the truth to be?" Power and profit became the unassailable be-all and end-all of corporate journalism.
Consider, for example, the case of John Fund.

Sex, Lies, and Journalism

As a member of the Editorial Board of the Wall Street Journal for 18 years, Fund was on a trajectory toward greater power in 1998, and that power provided him with a feeling of invincibility. Already accustomed to sexual access to many women who were attracted to him as a figure possessing power and money, he became accustomed to ignoring the consequences of behavior that was deceitful and ugly. He was also accustomed to lying politically. His personal and professional life matched. He knew no matter what he did he would be protected.
In October of 1998, he began a sexual relationship with the daughter of a long-time friend he had once dated. The woman's name was Morgan Pillsbury, my biological daughter. I had known Fund since 1980 when we met at a Libertarian Party Convention, where he came across as nerdy and bumbling but likable. The impression stuck. Over the years we kept in touch.
When I heard a rumor that Fund was involved with Morgan, I called him directly. He lied to me, telling me she lived nearby. He claimed that he had been feeding her cat for her while she had been away. I believed him. Having had experience with Morgan over many years, I knew she could be dishonest . She would need strong evidence to disprove Fund's claims to me. That is why the audio tape often referred to as the "Weaselsearch tape" was made. If you listen to the tape, it becomes immediately apparent that Fund did not want me to know the truth. He lied and pressured Morgan to lie about their relationship. There was no reason for this; if he had told me he was in a relationship with Morgan, I would have been surprised and appalled, but it had been many years since we had been more than friends. My time was occupied caring for my handicapped son and by my own health needs, not with his love life. And Morgan was no child. She was born July 5, 1967. John was born April 8, 1956.
If this had remained merely a case of a man lying about his love life, journalism would never have been an issue. But Fund wanted to continue the relationship with Morgan covertly so he could also have relations with other women. He did not want his professional life impacted.
Unfortunately for Fund, Morgan refused to be his dirty little secret. For much of the three years they were a couple, Fund used Morgan's computer for professional purposes, but also to receive personal e-mail. Why Fund would have overlooked the chain of evidence thus produced is perhaps explained by the fact that at that time he knew next to nothing about computers. During that time, Fund consistently lied about his relationship with Morgan and pursued other women. It was a strange relationship, and I do not pretend to entirely understand it. But at each point, I demanded proof from Morgan for just that reason. I talked to Fund over dinner, on the phone from the apartment the couple shared. I received e-mails from him and other proof that could not have been falsified, for instance this IM conversation on AOL between Matt Drudge and Morgan. Drudge had been IMing with Fund on Morgan's computer earlier. Fund went to bed, leaving the window up. And so Morgan continued the conversation.
Around January, 2002, Fund – despite claims to the contrary by himself and others – was fired from the Wall Street Journal, probably because of the scandal that exploded over his own behavior. Morgan told me he had battered her on multiple occasions, first in New Jersey and then after he stalked her back to Manhattan and insisted on moving in with her in her new apartment. I heard several of those incidents via phone – as did others.
She finally decided to file charges in both New Jersey and New York.
A letter from Fidelity Investments advised him to, "make a decision about what to do with the savings you have accumulated in your former employer's retirement plan." That employer was the Wall Street Journal. The letter is in Morgan's possession. Fund opened it in her living room and, as Morgan told me, left it laying on the floor.
The lies then escalated.
Morgan told me that Fund coerced a false confession from her to hide his acts. He used threats of violence to get the confession. Morgan sent this email to me and others immediately to refute what she had been forced to sign. Documentation exists to support the truth.
Fund solicited and received the cooperation of other journalists to spin what had taken place. One can only conclude that Fund was very willing to make it worth their while or misrepresent the facts. Evidence almost immediately surfaced that Fund was sexually involved with at least one journalist who then lied for him in print. Some journalists knew the truth. Others were clearly taken in by Fund's lies. All were guilty of a lack of due diligence. If they had followed the tenets set out for journalists today might be different for all of us.

Black Box Road to the Rove White House

Fund's relationship with the Bush White House and the purpose of the book he was then writing, Stealing Elections, were less obvious in 2002. Fund has since admitted he has been routinely briefed by the White House, before and after he was fired from the WSJ. His road to being a willing tool of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue was long and, in many ways, meteoric.
Fund first worked as a political operative in 1979, according to Justin Raimondo. His services were secured to ensure the nomination of Ed Clark for the Libertarian Presidential Nomination for 1980 by Ed Crane. Far from having an interest in stopping voter or election fraud, Fund himself committed a curious specie of fraud by claiming to be a candidate by taking out papers that year but never turning them in while claiming to be running for office and getting 46% of the vote. Justin Raimondo characterized Fund as "an expert lying propagandist of the sleazier sort."
Never in all the years I knew him did I hear Fund express any interest in the issues of election or voter fraud. His political interests were more sensational; his personal interests run to Star Wars and Star Trek. If you really knew him, this sudden change in principal interests should have raised questions about his role with those associated with the administration. It did for me. The book he wrote is now considered by those in the clean elections movement to be a misdirective tool intended to muddy the water on the issue of voter fraud. It focuses in on purported fraud by individuals, ignoring the enormous issues of fraud now ascribed to such companies as Diebold and ES&S. Fund proposed centralizing control over elections as a solution – an idea completely in line with the big and well-connected "black box" mongers – and is nearly successful in undermining the issue by injecting his spin.
Bev Harris of Black Box Voting said of Fund's position, "It is amazing that this bogus solution is still being put forth. His solutions take us directly to ever more centralized control by a small group of insiders. What is needed is for the people to have local control and access to the results. Complete transparency."
Mark Crispin Miller was even more explicit, saying, "Despite his pose as an impartial expert on American elections, John Fund is in fact a dedicated party operative, who for many years has turned out rightist propaganda for the GOP. Specifically, he has abetted the Republicans' election theft by helping to promote the myth of widespread Democratic 'voter fraud'--a fiction that has been disproved by every reputable study, but one which Fund has pushed at every opportunity. And so whatever he may recommend to help 'reform' US elections should be rejected out of hand, as on this crucial subject he enjoys no credibility at all."
Vickie Karp and others involved in the clean elections movement also agree about Fund and his role as a propagandist and deceiver. All of the agree that Fund's "solutions," which provide cover for ever more centralization and displace real reform, are the opposite of transparency.
Inserting himself into that dialog would have been severely hampered had he been in jail for domestic violence. Yet Fund remains a high level political operative. Understanding how he accomplished his goals provides a clear understanding of the covert operation we know as the Bush Administration.

Fund's "Nuts and Sluts" Strategy

Fund solicited several articles attacking both Morgan and myself.
Eric Alterman, a New York based writer known for his partisan political writing, generally perceived as on the left, authored an article for the May 15, 2003 edition of The Nation, Who Framed John Fund? Morgan and I attempted to contact Alterman. On Mother's Day morning, June 11th, Morgan received an email from Alterman urgently requesting a response to a list of questions. Alterman received her response within three hours. He used none of the material supplied, did not call to follow up on her reply, and did not ask for the further documents that Morgan had offered. On June 25, 2003 a response from another liberal, Mark Crispin Miller, was published with another from Alterman in The Nation. The exchange is titled, 'Ugly Tactics Make for Ugly People.' Alterman sent Morgan a dismissive e-mail on July 4th.
According to Fred Brown, vice chair of the ethics committee for the Society for Professional Journalists, many journalists would pause before writing an article requested by someone in Fund's circumstances. A journalist who followed the tenets of ethics would also be careful to ensure that all principals had fully aired their cases. Alterman violated every tenet of the code as outlined by SPJ.
Fund was at that time working to have the charges against him in New York dropped. To accomplish that, he had been told he needed to destroy our credibility – Morgan's as the victim and my own as a witness. Along with soliciting journalists with whom he had relationships or could compensate in some way, he solicited libelous letters from at least two individuals, each with a motive for wanting either myself or Pillsbury silenced.
A perfunctory search of the journalists involved also leads to linkages between journalists to be pointed out. Alterman states in articles he has written that he is a friend of Katie Rosman, about whom you will read more below. A Google search of their names shows they often appear at the same events and cite each other. Alterman "adores gossip," by his own report, and admits to being an avid reader of Page Six, a gossip column run by Richard Johnson with associates such as Doug Dechert. Dechert was a regular attendee at the Fabiani Society, which meets the second Tuesday at the Princeton Club, a place where Fund also regularly showed up. The first time I was introduced to Dechert at one of these events, he asked me for $10,000 to be in Page Six. I did not know what Page Six was and would have declined even more rapidly if I had known. Selling print in this fashion is not news, it is not journalism, and it is not public relations, a profession having its own tenets for ethics. Discussing the matter with Fred Brown, we agreed that the term "Slime Journalism" worked to describe it (with apologies to slime, which is an important part of the ecosystem). Reading Alterman's enthusiastic reports on the operation leads one to believe he expects dishonesty and scandal as standard. Certainly that is how his reports read.
The Fabiani Society is jointly sponsored by two NeoCon think-tanks, the Cato Institute and the Manhattan Institute. The speakers usually represent the opinions marketed by those institutions. Many come only for the opportunity to network or the excellent canapés and ample bar.
Fund sent this email to Morgan at the same time these articles would have been in the works, once again demonstrating his lack not only of professionalism but maturity.
An article solicited by Katie Rosman, then at Elle, in the autumn of 2003 presents a strategy also intended to silence us using another tack. We met with Katie Rosman at a coffee shop in Manhattan where she asked for an exclusive on the story. We agreed. Soon her contact with us became sporadic. The story was stalled for months, during a critical time period, and then quashed (see correspondence). Rosman received a job offer at the Wall Street Journal simultaneous to the article being dropped. Rosman is still working at the WSJ and is a friend of Eric Alterman's, according to Alterman.
Fund solicited a woman law professor, Gail Heriot (who was having a sexual relationship with Fund) to assist him. The site, John H. Fund, was originally registered at her address in San Diego, 4830 Hart Drive, San Diego, CA 92116. That has now been changed. Heriot put herself in the category of journalist when she wrote to Gene Gaudette, the editor of APJ, with a letter she sent across the Internet, effectively publishing it. Its content is libelous. (You can read that e-mail from Heriot to American Politics Journal and their demolishing response here).
Heriot had written an email to Fund on January 13, 2002 that reveals the source of her support for Fund: at that time Morgan and Fund were still living together she wrote, "So allow me to introduce myself. I am Gail Heriot, the woman whose hotel room you've found yourself in a few times over the last six weeks." See the full letter here.
Fund solicited other attacks. Wendy McElroy, who wrote "False Rape Charges Hurt Real Victims" for FOXnews.com (published July 22, 2003), also violated the tenets of journalism, evidently profiting thereby. Journalists are required to ensure the principals are heard. McElroy failed to call either Morgan or myself. Since I had known her personally since the 1970s, this was a shock. Instead of carrying out her ethical obligation to seek the facts she wrote the article exonerating Fund and was within weeks hired at FOX News, a media outlet long associated with Fund and his fellow NeoCons. McElroy has made her living for decades writing effective spin for niche groups that want to hear justifications for their positions. These include why women need pornography and why women are as likely to be batterers as men, among others.
Fund was offered support from a female journalist with whom he was evidently conducting an affair at Christian Broadcast Network. Her name was Christine Hall-Reis. Here is a semi-nude photo of her that she sent to Fund, which he downloaded to Morgan's computer and became her property. Fund and Morgan were living together at the time the photo was sent along with the accompanying email.
One can reach no other conclusion that each and every one of these articles was clearly solicited by Fund.
One also has to relish the irony of Fund using women with whom he was intimately involved to deploy a "nuts and sluts" smear campaign.
Fund also received help from individuals hoping to benefit from the opportunity presented who were not compensated. Two such individuals were Eric Garris and Justin Raimondo, now of Anti-War.com. Both individuals had known Fund and myself for many years. Both were members of a small but self-consciously radical group associated with the Libertarian Party and Murray Rothbard, a highly respected free market economist who died in the 90s. I made a call to Eric Garris in 2002 asking for help. Morgan was in hiding, in fear of her life. Fund was using every avenue to destroy my reputation and credibility. Eric refused to help. In 2006 Justin Raimondo wrote this article that appeared on Anti-War.com. I responded in 24 hours with this article.
Soon afterward I talked to Lew Rockwell, who employs Eric Garris as a webmaster. Eric had read my assertion that the hit piece on Fund was motivated by the realization neither he or Raimondo would never profit by covering for Fund. Lew told me he talked to Garris right after he read my article. Eric, he said, affirmed I was exactly right.
Among journalists on the right, the left and the libertarian realm, Fund had succeeded in persuading journalists to write in his defense.
In each instance they ignored the truth.
In all cases they hoped for some benefit for themselves.

John Fund: Above the Law?

The criminal case to be heard through the District Attorney was still hanging over Fund's head. He needed the charges to be quashed. Photographs of the injuries had been taken by the police. I had given testimony on what I had witnessed. Documents proving that Fund had systematically lied both to many women and to other journalists for years existed and were available, freely offered as proof. Instead of looking at all the evidence, the focus was placed solely on Morgan's veracity. Fund had solicited letters that perpetuated statements that were provably libelous and untrue. He had cooperation from the DA's office in Manhattan to ignore all of these forms of evidence.
When the DA replaced the first ADA assigned to the case, Eric Arnone, with Bonnie Saar, it was clear that the investigation would be neither fair nor thorough. Saar spent hours hammering Morgan with questions as if she were the perpetrator, ignoring the laws and practices usual with victims of domestic violence. Morgan was not even allowed to see her own case file, and that is another violation of existing law and practice. Through a back door into the DA's office, we learned that the letters were from my former husband, Craig Franklin, and one Eugene Volokh, a former boyfriend of Morgan. Both men had reasons for wanting to destroy either Morgan's or my own credibility, and those motives can be documented. In one case, the motive was to cover a felonious fraud amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars.
But that is another story for another day.
Fund's motives were more obvious and also deeper. For years I had been questioning Fund's actions. Beginning with obvious issues, for instance how Hillsdale College used its large endowment, I asked questions. I moved on to research Fund's associates. As the Arkansas Project unfolded and the bizarre information I heard from Fund grew, I began to ask more questions as I observed the NeoCon strategies for winning. By 2000, the issue of election fraud was very present in my mind. During a conversation Fund, Morgan and I had at dinner in 2000, Fund told us that writing the book on elections was his "consolation prize" for not getting the job as Bush speechwriter. He might have been lying, but that is what he said. I was surprised, and said so. Fund shrugged. In what had already become a pattern of "Wingnut Welfare" for the NeoCon right's roster of propagandists, the book would be financed, published and promoted – that was what mattered.
Destroying my credibility along with Morgan's accomplished several goals, for Fund and others. Fund knew I was researching him. The conversation we had had regarding Hillsdale had told him I doubted his stated motives. His lack of action on these issues decreased the frequency of his calls to me from 1996 on. Over the years I continued to write about Fund and his connections, branching out from there into the impact on the economy, on our institutions, and on the future.
I had told Fund in 2001 that his highest purpose in life was as an example of what is wrong with journalism. Fund has illustrated in thorough detail what needs to change. Journalism is not spin provided to sell a political agenda. Journalism is a trust essential to ensuring our continued freedom. The public must have the facts, the truth, and the means to decide for themselves.
It is time to start in that direction.
This week a group of journalists will be filing a FOIA demand for the information long withheld by Morganthau's office in Manhattan. Ethics matter. Doing the right thing matters. The file on the case against John Fund for domestic violence may clarify issues. It may raise issues yet unknown. But it must be public. The victim is willing to have you see it. This case can tell us what went wrong with the courts, with the police, with journalism and how political figures and corporations distort and use each of these. This case leads you down the rabbit hole.
No matter who is impacted – just plain folks, social elite, poor or wealthy, black or white, gay or straight – the truth matters. The sign of a healthy society is a system that does right by everyone. A working media, courts that deliver justice, and communities of people who handle things for themselves give us the means to know we are secure.
Concern is growing and some are already taking action. On the Internet and elsewhere, people are looking for solutions. We need to find what works. The Madoff fraud has awakened many to the need for action.

There are many today, for instance Dan Rather, who understand what it means to go through the crucible of fire for truth, emerging on the other side. We need those who were willing to speak out and we need to listen.