Tuesday, September 14, 2004

The Biggest Story You Won't See on Fox

(or likely anywhere else, for that matter...) via Pandagon: You've probably all heard by now that former Lt. Governor Barnes has come clean about his pulling strings to get Shrub into the Texas National Guard. But to date, Shrub has come off as an unwitting beneficiary of all the behind the scenes wheeling and dealing regarding his career. There hasn't been any hint so far that Shrub, himself personally traded favors to those who helped him dodge the draft. Until now. A UK journalist (Greg Palast) actually first reported Shrub's subsequent payoff to Barnes in 1999, but the US media refused to air it.

In a nutshell, he alleges that shortly after Shrub was elected governor in 1994, Barnes (now a high powered corporate lobbyist) agreed to keep silent about his efforts to get Shrub out of active duty service in return for the new governor stepping in to save his client's keester. At the time, the client (GTech Corp.) , was about to lose its contract to run the Texas state lottery due to allegations of corruption (they were under investigation by the FBI for guess what....attempting to influence lawmakers!). Palast cites a Justice Department document that says Barnes made a call to the newly elected governor's office and saved GTech's state contract.

The story needs some corroboration, but it wasn't so long ago Barnes refused to even admit he'd pulled the strings. Maybe there's hope this might hit the mainstream media???

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