Saturday, February 23, 2008

Is John McCain a Liar?

By Robert Parry
February 23, 2008

In journalism, it’s a safe bet that if you write a story with the suggestion that a prominent male politician is bedding an attractive female lobbyist, whatever other point you hoped to make will be overlooked.

That appears to have been the case with the New York Times article on Feb. 21, which led with suspicions held by some McCain staffers that the Arizona senator had gotten too cozy with lobbyist Vicky Iseman. The Times story then veered off into a historical examination of McCain’s over-confidence about his own moral rectitude.

Read on.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

IS BARACK OBAMA A LIAR?

Put differently, is the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee – like Colin Powell – a media darling whose reputation for honesty is largely undeserved?

Anonymous said...

McCain was not born into the Hensley family, He could have married Hensley's daughter and taken the principled path of not associating himself financially with Hensely, or accepting any of his money. Instead, Hensley used ex-POW McCain to remove some of the stench of his own reputation, and McCain used Hensely's money to launch and finance his political career and to make himself the seventh wealthiest member of congress.
McCain can only be either an incurious idiot who knew nothing of Hensley's background, or a conniving, greedy, unethical, ambitious opportunist.
With this background, how is McCain an acceptable republican nominee for 2008 US presidential race? Why hasn't the press, in 27 years, made these issues rise to the level of their actual significance?

March 26, 1977 Albuquerque Journal Newspaper Report:
"Ruidoso Race Track Owners Tied to Arizona Gambling
By Robert V. Beier
Former associates of Phoenix wheeler dealers and gambling interests once controlled Ruidoso
Downs race track and while in New Mexico they apparently kept their business operations to
themselves.
Eugene V. Hensley and his brother James W. Hensley who purchased controlling stock of Ruidoso
Racing Assn in December 1952, once worked for and with Kemper Marley, Phoenix millionaire
rancher and wholesale liquor dealer.

And When the Hensley brothers purchased control of the Lincoln County track, Phoenix gambler
Clarence E. "Teak" Baldwin simultaneously bought one third of the race track stock-- something
the Hensleys denied in a State Racing Commission hearing in May, 1953.

Marley, 70 was named recently in a police affadavit as the man who requested the contract
killings of Arizona Republic reporter Don Bolles, slain in a bomb attack last June and Arizona
Atty Gen Bruce Babbitt.
No attempt was made on Babbitt's (continued on A-16)
(Continued from A-1)
Ex-Owners Knew Arizona Gamblers
life. Marley has not been criminally charged.
An Investigative Reporters and Editors "IRE" report in it's Phoenix Project revealed Marley also
ran an organized crime ???? wire service for bookies that was managed at one time by Baldwin who
was convicted of income tax evasion in 1956.
The IRE investigation showed the Hensleys were associates of Marley and Baldwin in the 1930s,
1940s and early 1950s in Phoenix.
A search of commission records in Albuquerque by the Journal showed the racing body in the early
1950s was aware of the associations and leary of Mr. Baldwin connected with the Hensleys in
their purchase and operation of the track.
At a May 1953 commission hearing in Albuquerque records show the Hensley brothers readily told
of their connections with the Arizona wholesale liquor business and Marley in the 1930s and
1940s and the federal convictions in 1948 for making false entires on government records
regarding ???? liquor sales.
However, the Henleys denied at the same hearing that Baldwin their old croney in Phoenix, had
any stock interest in Ruidoso Downs.
But two years later, at another hearing records reflect Baldwin did have stock interest in the
track.And the records show a federal lawsuit against Eugene Hensley in Albuquerque filed by trustees
for Baldwin to recover 362 shares of Ruidoso Racing Assn stock was settled for $40,000 and the stock was released to the Hensleys. This was in November, 1955.
Efforts by the Journal to contact the Hensley brothers were unsuccessful. Eugene, who now lives in El Paso, and James, a resident of Phoenix, were reported in Mazatlan, Mexico.
At the May, 1953 hearing, records show that the late Tom Closson, as chairman of the commission, told the Hensleys, "The namr of Teak Baldwin keeps creeping up as we go along in what the commission conveyed to you. The commission would not have Baldwin connected in any way, shape or form down there at Riuduso Downs."
The Hensleys, records show told the commissioner Baldwin had no money in the track, known as Hollywood Race Track prior to 1953.
It was brought out in the May 1953 hearing that Baldwin had been charged in Phoenix of doctoring drinks of patrons at his restaurant and then fleecing them in gambling games, according to IRE.
Baldwin later was acquitted of grand theft charges. Eugene Hensley revealed it was Baldwin who steered him to look at Ruidoso Downs which he and his brother purchased from the late OM "Hop" Lee Sr., a member of the commission and some Texas proncipals in December, 1952.
Eugene Hensley told the commission Baldwin was allowed to run the ???? men's kitchen at the track and had spent some of his own money for equipment.
In 1965, Baldwin also sued over a concession contract he allegedly had at the track. The suit in federal court in Albuquerue was dismissed.
As a result of reports concerning an alleged connection between the Hensleys and Baldwin, the commission in 1953 had the New Mexico State Police investigate the trio in Arizona.
The State Police investigation revealed Eugene Hensley had filed a suit against Baldwin in 1951 in an Arizona Court seeking $6,500 he allegedly had loaned to Baldwin. No disposition of the civil suit was mentioned in the records.
After his federal conviction and nine months in a Tucson federal prison camp Eugene Hensley told the commission he owned and operated a number of bars and cafes in Phoenix until ge purchased the Ruidoso Downs track.
James Hensley sold out his interest in the track in April, 1955. He was secretary-treasurer of the Ruidoso Racing Assn at the time and record do not reflect any further connection with the track.
Also testifying at the May 1953 hearing was RS "Stan" Snedigar, who was designated as secretary of racing at the track.
Formerly connected with Phoenix tracks as a racing official, Snedigar told the commission he was acquainted with the Hensleys and Baldwin in Arizona and detailed for the commission his knowledge of their business interests.
Snedigar later became a member of the Ruidoso Racing Assn board of directors and a minor stockholder in the track.
An IRE report lists RS Snedigar as a partner with Baldwin and others in three Phoenix restaurants and bars.

The 1953 State Police report in connection with it's Arizona investigation of the Hensleys and Baldwin noted Marley "owned a wire service formerly operated in connection with bookmaking of the Al Capone gang."
The same report listed Baldiwn as a "bookmaker for leading tracks" and said that Marley "is reputed to be the financial backer for bookies..."


The 1953 State Police report to the commission also included a transcript of a phone conversation between an officer in Sante Fe and a detective with the Phoenix Police Dpt. who said, "Our confidential files built upon Baldwin (and others) was loaned to some officials and never returned. We've never been able to locate them."In November, 1966, Eugene Hensley was convicted of federal income tax evasion and failure to file income tax returns. Later, Eugene Hensley was barred from Ruidoso Downs by the Commission.
After unsuccessful appeals of the federal income tax comnvictions and the serving a sentence at ?? ????, Tex. federal reformatory, Eugene Hensley and his former wife, Martha Hensley, sold their controlling stock in the track in 1969."

Anonymous said...

Is John McCain a Liar? Well, yes. Certainly he is.

And he is getting to become a bigger liar by the minute.

Just by chance, I saw some video of McCain campaigning, on one of the satellite news channels.

And there he was pledging to go "through the gates of Hell if necessary" to hunt down Usama bin Laden for his role in the Sept. 11th attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

Well, John McCain has been walking past the same FBI "10 Most Wanted Fugitive" posters in federal buildings for years, just like the rest of us.

You know, the same poster that you can read on the FBI's website, here:

http://www.fbi.gov/wanted/topten/fugitives/laden.htm

And, of course, John McCain knows full well the FBI wanted poster says NOTHING about bin Laden being involved in the Sept.11th attacks.

And if you ask the FBI why that is, they will tell you: The FBI has no evidence that Usama bin Laden had anything to do with the Sept. 11th attacks.

This isn't a secret. It isn't classified. It is just a plain fact.

The FBI knows that SOME DAY there may be a legitimate investigation (unlike the pathetic cover-up to which we were all subjected) into the Sept. 11th attacks. And THIS TIME, the FBI isn't going to take the fall for the President's lies.

Most of the American people don't know this. Of course. They are isolated from reality by the Great American Corporate Media Bubble.

But John McCain certainly knows it.

And yet, he's courting the slobbering-at-the-mouth redneck vote by peddling what he knows to be nonsense.

Worse yet, if anybody "goes through the gates of Hell" pursuing Usama bin Laden, it won't be Commander in Chief John McCain. Just as it was in Vietnam, it will be courageous young men and women who bleed and die for their commander's lies. Betrayed again. As usual.

I don't know about Arizona. But in Texas they have a saying for people like John McCain: "He's such a liar, he has to have a neighbor calls his dogs home."

REG CROWDER
http://www.RegCrowder.com

Anonymous said...

HOW TO FIND THE USAMA BIN LADEN "WANTED POSTER" SO YOU CAN READ IT YOURSELF.

I see that the Blogger format wasn't quite able to cope with the LONG web link to the place on the FBI's website where the bin Laden wanted poster can be found.

No sweat. There's another way.

Just do a Google search on these words:

FBI ten most wanted fugitive Usama Bin Laden

That will get you there.

Anonymous said...

Very good summary, Robert. As usual, the MccainStream Media are running interference for their golden boy. Not one of the numerous reports I saw on network news broadcasts (ABC, NBC, CBS) made even a passing reference to the Keating Five affair -- not even when McCain in effect invited them to revisit his less-than-pristine personal history with his categorical statement that he had "never betrayed the public trust". And with so much of the NYT article devoted to the Keating Five episode, these pathetic excuses-for-journalists can't even plead that it's just because of their "fuzzy memory of ancient history".

Btw, Robert, you might want to check out what McCain's fellow Keating Five conspirator, ex-Senator Dennis DeConcini, has to say about this. He has his own axe to grind, of course, but judging by what he had to say in his memoir (published last year), he's clearly still pissed off about the kid glove treatment that McCain received. Here's a couple of links to get you started:

A straight news article from:
Arizona Republic
Jan. 10, 2007
"DeConcini's memoir details tense relationship with McCain"
by Billy House, Republic Washington Bureau
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/0110deconcini-book0110.html

A rather jaundiced commentary from:
Phoenix New Times
October 12, 2006
"McCain Shame"
by Stephen Lemons
http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/2006-10-12/news/mccain-shame/print

Craig.Gingold
@yahoo.com

Anonymous said...

Why hasn't the press raised the "Keating 5" issue, with McCain being one of the 5?" And,why hasn't McCain's insensitive and disgusting "joke" about Chelsea Clinton being raised?
McCain is not fit to be Senator, much less President.
If he is the best the Republican party can do, the party should be over.

Anonymous said...

Why would anybody support such a lying flip-flopper as McCain?

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