Post by Prissy New Year!!! on Jun 18, 2008 19:19:41 GMT -5
Ok for those of you who may not know, this is the guy who claims to have done cocaine and had sex with Obama. He has failed a lie detector test, but you can still see Clinton and McCain supporters bringing up his name in an effort to discredit Obama.
This guy (whose funding source is a paypal link from his website, and some links to a republican supporter) rents space at the National Press Club to hold a press conference.
I admit that when I heard that he was going to do this, I was angry, wondering why this guy is getting air time from the "legitimate" media. After reading about how it all went down, I have to say that his press conference was the best thing that could have happened to discredit him.
Read the following...
www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/06/18/obama-accuser-larry-sincl_n_107900.html
It is not often that a political reporter can claim to have witnessed the single most stupefying event on any single day, what with the diversity of inanity on display from coast to coast in an election year. But today, I feel confident laying claim to that dubious distinction, for I attended Larry Sinclair's Wednesday press conference at the National Press Club.
The event began less than auspiciously for Mr. Sinclair -- who has gained Internet notoriety by spreading wild accusations regarding gay sex, drugs and possible murder committed by Barack Obama -- as National Press Club staff took pains to remove the association's logo from behind the podium where Sinclair was set to speak. (Politico's Ben Smith today detailed Sinclair's "27-year criminal record, with a specialty in crimes involving deceit.")
Of course, the club had made clear for some time that it should not be viewed as endorsing Mr. Sinclair's claims simply for having agreed to host his mind-numbingly preposterous litany -- heavens, no! All that could be said for the institution was that it was happy to rent out its space to anyone who might be willing to pay in order to switch on the microphone.
And pay Sinclair did -- for the venue and its microphone, as well as for a kilted lawyer (with a suspended license) named Montgomery Blair Sibley, who informed those assembled that his preferences in dress were arrived at as a way to secure comfort for his unusually large sexual organs. "I don't know why men wear pants," he said with a poker face. "It's a function of male genitalia. If you're size normal or smaller, you're probably comfortable with [pants]. ... Those at the other end of the spectrum find them quite confining."
"I asked him to wear a suit and tie," Mr. Sinclair said ruefully. Then, he admitted to suffering from a brain tumor.
Only slightly less mystifying were the several dozen assembled journalists who seemed to grant Mr. Sinclair some modicum of respect with their questions. They cross-examined his statement regarding his supposed meetings with the Illinois Democrat with a vigor and small-bore attention to detail that prosecutors reserve strictly for witnesses who are sane. Imagine if you were to encounter someone who had lit himself on fire, and then proceeded to ask which brand of gasoline he favored.
And so the inquiries came, most of which Mr. Sinclair easily batted back with the exhortation to investigate his claims more vigorously. As for the evidence he provided, it amounted to a few phone numbers -- registered under different names and in different states -- that Mr. Sinclair claimed he used to call, variously, a limousine driver, the deceased choir director of Trinity United Church of Christ, and others. Clearly, it is now the duty of the mobile phone companies to open up these records to court scrutiny. (Forgive me for not reprinting any of the "evidence" in full here. Should you care to see it, Sinclair promised a version would be made public on his website, one free of the several errors which vexed him during his public statement today.)
"I expect you to ask me questions," Sinclair told the reporters. "I expect you to do your job, and actually find facts as opposed to looking at DailyKos or FireDogLake or Huffington Post or all of these pro-Obama sites."
When a questioner asked Mr. Sinclair whether he would permit review of his mental health records "for more than 30 minutes" -- in a lame attempt to riff on the restrictions imposed by John McCain's campaign -- Sinclair mumbled for a few moments, unaware of the reference.
When he was clued in, Mr. Sinclair shrugged and said: "You can see where my head is today."
To borrow a phrase: yes, we can.
And then at the end of the press conference, he gets arrested. Just a tip...if you have outstanding warrants, don't call a press conference...
reason.com/blog/show/127093.html
More Fun in Obamaconspiracyville: In Which Larry Sinclair Gets Arrested
David Weigel | June 18, 2008, 6:41pm
I blogged a few weeks back about a convicted criminal, Larry Sinclair, who'd been begging the media to cover his wild allegations about Barack Obama. Today Sinclair trotted into the National Press Club to air the allegations before what can literally be described as an audience of international press, and can more accurately be described as an amused bunch of people taking in a circus act.
It had been a difficult morning for Sinclair. The Politico's Ben Smith published a short feature on Sinclair's 27-year criminal record of fraud and petty crimes; Greta Van Susteren linked the story, and told viewers/readers why she has ignored him. "While the internet is a great communication and educational tool, it is also viral when it comes to smearing people," she wrote, prompting commenters to call her a cover-up artist and an agent of Barack Obama. It got worse when Sinclair's lawyer Montgomery Sibley—whose license is currently suspended in D.C. and Florida—showed up in a kilt and told reporters that his above-average endowment made slacks tight and uncomfortable. The Rev. James David Manning, who gained web celebrity in April for a YouTube'd sermon in which he called Obama a "long-legged mack daddy," sat in the crowd of 50 or so with his family. He didn't take questions.
How did Sinclair hold up? Rather terribly. He started with a lengthy statement that admitted most (not all) of his crimes and dispatched Sibley to run around the room with a microphone. As Seth Colter Walls recounts, most of the questions were legalistic and (somewhat) credulous. Sinclair was asked who funded the event (donors, over the internet), how he made his living (he's on disability), and whether Obama was "well hung" (I'm not going to dignify his answer here). The only new "evidence" he presented was the name of a limo driver and the bar where he claimed to have met Obama (who, in Sinclair's story, used his real name and job title as he rendevouzed with a cruising criminal he'd never met before).
I only got to ask one question: What time of day did Sinclair meet with Obama on November 6th and November 7th? In Sinclair's story, Obama partied with him on the 6th and traveled to his hotel in Gurnee, IL (an hour and change from Hyde Park) on the 7th. Sinclair smiled at the question. "We met in the early evening of November 6th," he said. "As far as a specific time on November 7th, I can not provide that to you." He added, parenthetically: "And I know where this question is coming from?"
"You know where this question is coming from?"
"Thank you." Sinclair moved on and Sibley refused to let me ask another question. Why didn't I wait until the end of the press conference and rush up to the accuser? The second Sinclair stopped taking questions, he fled the room and reporters were denied access to anyone but Sibley. I was a little disappointed until I heard the reason. Larry Sinclair was arrested after the press conference and is being held by the Washington, D.C. metropolitan police. He's been charged as a fugitive from justice; one of his warrants can be seen here.
UPDATE: More details here.
Send this article to: StumbleUpon Digg
This guy (whose funding source is a paypal link from his website, and some links to a republican supporter) rents space at the National Press Club to hold a press conference.
I admit that when I heard that he was going to do this, I was angry, wondering why this guy is getting air time from the "legitimate" media. After reading about how it all went down, I have to say that his press conference was the best thing that could have happened to discredit him.
Read the following...
www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/06/18/obama-accuser-larry-sincl_n_107900.html
It is not often that a political reporter can claim to have witnessed the single most stupefying event on any single day, what with the diversity of inanity on display from coast to coast in an election year. But today, I feel confident laying claim to that dubious distinction, for I attended Larry Sinclair's Wednesday press conference at the National Press Club.
The event began less than auspiciously for Mr. Sinclair -- who has gained Internet notoriety by spreading wild accusations regarding gay sex, drugs and possible murder committed by Barack Obama -- as National Press Club staff took pains to remove the association's logo from behind the podium where Sinclair was set to speak. (Politico's Ben Smith today detailed Sinclair's "27-year criminal record, with a specialty in crimes involving deceit.")
Of course, the club had made clear for some time that it should not be viewed as endorsing Mr. Sinclair's claims simply for having agreed to host his mind-numbingly preposterous litany -- heavens, no! All that could be said for the institution was that it was happy to rent out its space to anyone who might be willing to pay in order to switch on the microphone.
And pay Sinclair did -- for the venue and its microphone, as well as for a kilted lawyer (with a suspended license) named Montgomery Blair Sibley, who informed those assembled that his preferences in dress were arrived at as a way to secure comfort for his unusually large sexual organs. "I don't know why men wear pants," he said with a poker face. "It's a function of male genitalia. If you're size normal or smaller, you're probably comfortable with [pants]. ... Those at the other end of the spectrum find them quite confining."
"I asked him to wear a suit and tie," Mr. Sinclair said ruefully. Then, he admitted to suffering from a brain tumor.
Only slightly less mystifying were the several dozen assembled journalists who seemed to grant Mr. Sinclair some modicum of respect with their questions. They cross-examined his statement regarding his supposed meetings with the Illinois Democrat with a vigor and small-bore attention to detail that prosecutors reserve strictly for witnesses who are sane. Imagine if you were to encounter someone who had lit himself on fire, and then proceeded to ask which brand of gasoline he favored.
And so the inquiries came, most of which Mr. Sinclair easily batted back with the exhortation to investigate his claims more vigorously. As for the evidence he provided, it amounted to a few phone numbers -- registered under different names and in different states -- that Mr. Sinclair claimed he used to call, variously, a limousine driver, the deceased choir director of Trinity United Church of Christ, and others. Clearly, it is now the duty of the mobile phone companies to open up these records to court scrutiny. (Forgive me for not reprinting any of the "evidence" in full here. Should you care to see it, Sinclair promised a version would be made public on his website, one free of the several errors which vexed him during his public statement today.)
"I expect you to ask me questions," Sinclair told the reporters. "I expect you to do your job, and actually find facts as opposed to looking at DailyKos or FireDogLake or Huffington Post or all of these pro-Obama sites."
When a questioner asked Mr. Sinclair whether he would permit review of his mental health records "for more than 30 minutes" -- in a lame attempt to riff on the restrictions imposed by John McCain's campaign -- Sinclair mumbled for a few moments, unaware of the reference.
When he was clued in, Mr. Sinclair shrugged and said: "You can see where my head is today."
To borrow a phrase: yes, we can.
And then at the end of the press conference, he gets arrested. Just a tip...if you have outstanding warrants, don't call a press conference...
reason.com/blog/show/127093.html
More Fun in Obamaconspiracyville: In Which Larry Sinclair Gets Arrested
David Weigel | June 18, 2008, 6:41pm
I blogged a few weeks back about a convicted criminal, Larry Sinclair, who'd been begging the media to cover his wild allegations about Barack Obama. Today Sinclair trotted into the National Press Club to air the allegations before what can literally be described as an audience of international press, and can more accurately be described as an amused bunch of people taking in a circus act.
It had been a difficult morning for Sinclair. The Politico's Ben Smith published a short feature on Sinclair's 27-year criminal record of fraud and petty crimes; Greta Van Susteren linked the story, and told viewers/readers why she has ignored him. "While the internet is a great communication and educational tool, it is also viral when it comes to smearing people," she wrote, prompting commenters to call her a cover-up artist and an agent of Barack Obama. It got worse when Sinclair's lawyer Montgomery Sibley—whose license is currently suspended in D.C. and Florida—showed up in a kilt and told reporters that his above-average endowment made slacks tight and uncomfortable. The Rev. James David Manning, who gained web celebrity in April for a YouTube'd sermon in which he called Obama a "long-legged mack daddy," sat in the crowd of 50 or so with his family. He didn't take questions.
How did Sinclair hold up? Rather terribly. He started with a lengthy statement that admitted most (not all) of his crimes and dispatched Sibley to run around the room with a microphone. As Seth Colter Walls recounts, most of the questions were legalistic and (somewhat) credulous. Sinclair was asked who funded the event (donors, over the internet), how he made his living (he's on disability), and whether Obama was "well hung" (I'm not going to dignify his answer here). The only new "evidence" he presented was the name of a limo driver and the bar where he claimed to have met Obama (who, in Sinclair's story, used his real name and job title as he rendevouzed with a cruising criminal he'd never met before).
I only got to ask one question: What time of day did Sinclair meet with Obama on November 6th and November 7th? In Sinclair's story, Obama partied with him on the 6th and traveled to his hotel in Gurnee, IL (an hour and change from Hyde Park) on the 7th. Sinclair smiled at the question. "We met in the early evening of November 6th," he said. "As far as a specific time on November 7th, I can not provide that to you." He added, parenthetically: "And I know where this question is coming from?"
"You know where this question is coming from?"
"Thank you." Sinclair moved on and Sibley refused to let me ask another question. Why didn't I wait until the end of the press conference and rush up to the accuser? The second Sinclair stopped taking questions, he fled the room and reporters were denied access to anyone but Sibley. I was a little disappointed until I heard the reason. Larry Sinclair was arrested after the press conference and is being held by the Washington, D.C. metropolitan police. He's been charged as a fugitive from justice; one of his warrants can be seen here.
UPDATE: More details here.
Send this article to: StumbleUpon Digg