Jackass of the Month: DC Madam's Former Condo Manager, Joe Strizack

Orlando, Florida--No, it's not Alex Jones, but the same kind of vulture. Proving that the parapolitical is a great way to get attention (and dollars), Joe Strizack is making-the-rounds of everyone with a working-microphone, lunch, and some cab money, telling us that Jeane Palfrey was "afraid for her life."

This is untrue, and it's unlikely that Strizack met her more than a few times in-person (I never did, our correspondence was via-e-mail, and a few phone calls). It's even doubtful that he talked to her personally.

He's doing what Larry Flynt, Alex Jones (whose show he spoke on), and the rest of the Internet and media are doing: milking a horrible tragedy for as much money and advertising as they can. Mr. Strizack is a liar and a blackguard. Never mind the wild leaps of logic it requires to believe there's a conspiracy in Jeane's death, and forget that the courts already did all of the real work in destroying her--"she was murdered." [Ed. 04.05.2010--Correction, it would be "She were murdered."]

I understand that thinking hurts, and that there is no "bottom" for how low human beings can sink, but there's more to this mad dash towards a conspiracy: most casual-onlookers cannot understand the story, and neither could the mainstream press. Most people cannot think about more than one concept at once. Nothing new here, move along.

Things will die down, and nobody will remember the vapid Strizack or the stupid remarks he has made--lies--about Jeane Palfrey and his very casual association with her. Now, if only we could all forget Larry Flynt, but that's impossible, since he's that untreatable form of the clap. One has to wonder if he's going to bother releasing those other names from her phone records that I trumped hydraulic-man on: John McCain, Dick Cheney, and Fred Thompson.

Conspiracism: what a cottage industry. So much for the truth, but since when did most of humanity ever care about that? You think Rob Capriccioso has jumped on the bandwagon of untruth and wild exaggeration? It's even money. Here's hoping that his blog at least got him laid.

WRITER Knows that Radar and Bigheaddc Knows That You Know That I Know They are Failing to Save Face

"Sen. Vitter needs to do everything he can to avoid becoming a sound bite, and it would be best if he said nothing." --An anonymous GOP Senate aide.

WWW--I'm sending this e-mail off to Rob Capriccioso in a few moments, and these are going to be my last words on this whole affair wherein Rob and Radar's Editor John Cook thought they had a "big one." They didn't, and if they don't believe Ms. Palfrey is lying in her assertion that Sam Donaldson's presence in her now-defunct escort service's phone records has no significance, then what do they really assert?

To save face, I recommend the following constructive suggestion: start doing some real investigating of the people in the shadows who were her real clients, and drop the gossip. It should be noted here that none of this is to suggest that Ms. Palfrey was running a prostitution ring--that's not a necessary component.

What's very likely is that Senator David Vitter and others solicited her subcontractors to engage in acts that would constitute prostitution. There has been no trial yet, and Ms. Palfrey must be presumed innocent until proven guilty under our system of justice (or what's left of it). Go after the leads in the case of Ronald Roughead (and possibly his brother, CNO Gary Roughead), Randall L. Tobias, and Senator David Vitter.

Many in the GOP, fearing political consequences, want Vitter to fight the subpoena or refuse to answer questions by invoking Fifth Amendment protection from self-incrimination. Vitter has yet to say whether he will fight the subpoena. ...Vitter's allies contend the record already shows Vitter had an alleged taste for the high-priced escorts, particularly Paula Neble, so there is nothing he can add that can help Palfrey. (New York Daily News, 11.17.2007)

Of course, they would know, wouldn't they? Especially considering some of them could be--or individuals associated with them--are still to be uncovered in the phone records, and if there was actually some substantial investigation occurring by those with the means to do so. Instead, we get Sam Donaldson rooked into all of this because of some misdialing, but the show still had to go on at Radar and Bigheaddc. As a result, their behavior has all the appearance of being just like the corrupt, lazy, and apathetic mainstream press. While people are attempting to cover their asses, the bad-guys are getting away (presumably with murder in many cases).


The e-mail to Rob Capriccioso:

Dear Rob:

I'm posting this e-mail at my site:

I've read your piece, and in fairness, I am giving you some benefit of the doubt. However, simply because you've done hours of interviews with Palfrey does not support your thesis, and I'm skeptical there will be any follow-up explanations. In fact, nothing in the posting 'Blogger Thinks We Think Palfrey Is Lying; He’s Wrong,' supports the contentions that there was ever a worthwhile story here. It's my opinion that you're not seeing the forest for the trees, but you're hardly alone on this.

Of course ABC mishandled the phone records and behaved suspiciously, that's been obvious since May. Certainly, there is a strong likelihood that they were concerned about their ranks being in the records as well. But what of it? This is the same media that carried this administration's water--almost to the man and woman--and got us into this absurd and illegal war in Afghanistan and Iraq. Do you think your efforts are going to make any real difference?

ABC's not the real story, and Ms. Palfrey confirmed my thesis that there was no story with Sam Donaldson in the phone records and that you jumped the gun on all of this. She has confirmed my assertions in correspondence as being "spot-on." You contend that you don't believe she lying, which makes no sense in this context at all. You need to be watching real clients of her phone records, like Senator David Vitter, Ret. Army Colonel Ronald Roughead (US Navy CNO Rear Admiral Gary Roughead's brother), and even a fellow named Mark Capansky, a former intern of Pennsylvania Rep. Bob Goodlatte. You also need to be looking into affairs at Annapolis, a short drive for you and your associates. You're too interested in the easy fix and the smut side of the story, and the ABC story is very likely a red herring, a dead end. We can all do better than this.

I could be wrong, but you're acting just as ABC did last Spring: only being interested in the "big names," the smut or salacious side of the story, and not really interested at all in getting-to-the-bottom of the whole affair. I assume a lot of this is for the sake of brevity--it takes explaining a story of genuine significance, and the rewards are often meagre. I will not disrespect you by calling you a journalist, as it's not a good thing to be called these days.

Thanks to all this running-in-place by the press and bloggers, Senator Vitter can now be replaced with a Republican appointed by Louisiana's new Republican Governor, Bobby Jindal. However, it's possible now that the GOP's incumbents in the Senate are going to turn on Vitter because of this fact. Will Vitter's counsel move to quash the subpoena? That's likely, but it doesn't mean it's going to be successful. We can only wait and see how Judge Kessler will rule on this.

Why you continue to assert that there is something to the Donaldson story puzzles me, but that's for others to find-out and publish, I'm done with this sideshow. This is a very broad scandal with implications that strike to the core of our political and economic system. As someone living around Washington D.C., you need to start hitting the pavement and tracking-down the real clients of Pamela Martin & Associates. You're hardly alone in being distracted from what is likely the real focus of the story: specific clients like Vitter, Tobias, Roughead, Capansky, and others who haven't been uncovered yet, but who are probably the cause of the whole scandal.

I was in close-communication with Ms. Palfrey during the aftermath of the ABC debacle, and I can tell you that it's more about the people who own the network and their representatives in Congress and elsewhere in the political sectors of this country. Perhaps you agree, but clinging to the Donaldson story isn't necessarily going to get to the heart of things at the network. There is definitely more than enough smoke implicating the role of lobbyists in the Palfrey case as well. ABC's ownership made the decision not to report on a number of individuals, not merely Sam Donaldson.

There were hints very early-on that there might be journalists in there, and possibly even some from ABC--the contention isn't new. I'm frankly uninterested in the quick-fix school of journalism which takes the view of what sells best as factoid news, a rush towards bringing in those advertising dollars. ABC's Brian Ross and his producers fought a hard battle with ownership and lost, and there are stories of yelling matches at the network. That's something to think about. Accountability: it's not just for breakfast anymore. Make us proud and start hitting the bad-guys.

The New York Daily News, 11.17.2007:

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2007/11/17/2007-11-17_republicans_urge_politican_to_stay_quiet.html

11.20.2007: PS to Rob--I'm a writer, not a blogger. One might wonder why Rob won't return my e-mails anymore, but I don't. He's already dug a deep enough hole with all of this.

Well duh II: What Happened Between Bigheaddc and Radar?

The worthless mainstream media/Washington D.C.--Right, Sam Donaldson IS in the phone records of Deborah Jeane Palfrey's defunct Pamela Martin & Associates, but it isn't significant. Have you ever dialed the wrong-number before? Sam's relatives did, since one of Palfrey's numbers was one-digit off from Donaldson's, so she kept getting calls from them, and over-and-over again.

Cue Radar magazine's site editor John Cook and an overzealous Rob Capriccioso of Bigheaddc.com who thought they had a major scoop that required virtually no investment and could bring in those advertising dollars.

A source close to the story has confirmed that there was no story to begin with. But they went and ran it anyway, and have now turned on each other claiming different stories. Readers should note that they both appear to be contending that Palfrey is lying, which is pretty low of them considering she's a defendant. That's how it goes in this story--guilty until proven innocent, a curiously un-American contention that runs-through the affair labeled "Hookergate" by the mainstream press. This comment was posted by this writer at Radaronline.com's page for the article "Donaldson's Digits: Wrong Number" at 1:50PM today, though I doubt it's getting put up, it is unedited:

Right, pretty vague information in those missives posted by Mr. Cook and Capriccioso. Here's what I have good reason to believe transpired, and from a source directly involved in the whole mess:Because of the salacious side of Ms. Palfrey's legal predicament, there is a class of journalists and bloggers who tend to fixate on the "prostitution" aspects, rather than the real story--the political side.

But no, instead we have the usual laziness of trying to find the "big names," when that's not the real story at all. What's the real story? We don't know all of it yet, but outlines are beginning to appear. But that means work, real investigative work, not an easy fix like a Sam Donaldson. What of the others in the records of Ms. Palfrey's former escort service?

The best example is one I and an anonymous commenter (I believe at Firedoglake) discovered in the phone records of Pamela Martin & Associates back in July (yes, July!): one Ronald Roughead (703-836-0522, Cingular 2005) who is probably still employed by SAIC, one of the most successful contractors to the defense and intelligence communities, and who even have some tangential connections to the Randy 'Duke' Cunningham scandal. This connection come from associates of Cunningham's co-conspirator, Brent Wilkes.

It should be noted here that former House Speaker Dennis Hastert was mentioned in the trial of Wilkes in recent weeks by Wilkes' nephew. Also, it should be noted that Mr. Roughead is brother to Rear Admiral Gary Roughead, current Bush appointed CNO of the entire Naval Fleets of the US! But, according to the LA Times, Gannett, USA Today, and sundry other outlets, this isn't newsworthy. Ask yourselves why Ronald Roughead is in the records.

I have posted information about Mr., Roughead on Bigheaddc's comments section (of which I am now unable to access), and there has been no follow-up on it as far as I can tell. No, instead, we get Sam Donaldson and other such items of gossip--presumably to elicit more hits and more advertising dollars to Radar and Bigheaddc, the whole point of the rush to run the Donaldson pseudo-story.

Again, what happened between Radar and Bighead? They wanted the SMUT, but Ms. Palfrey wasn't going to confirm it to Mr. Capriccioso, so he went and submitted the story anyway. But there was a problem of confirmation: Deborah Jeane Palfrey. She's not going to confirm it because there was never a story to begin with. Her assertions are true, while those of Radar and Bighead are not. They wanted a story that was an easy fix, didn't get it, and went and ran it anyway. Now they have to do the clean-up.

The real job is find those culprits like Ret. Colonel Ronald Roughead (the people who expedite the atrocities of our day in the safety of the shadows), the real players with the security clearances who have called Ms. Palfrey's service (or vice versa).

A great face-saving gesture on-the-part of Mr. Cook and Mr. Capriccioso would be to get-up and drive to 1200 First Street, Alexandria, Virginia where Mr. Roughead lives and confront him. You might want to break the news to his wife, however. Did he phone escort services in Iraq when he ran the IMN (Iraq Media Network)? Roughead is likely a propaganda chief, so maybe that explains some of the bumbling on the internet...