The Curtis case and China, plus a few extra vote fraud links

Clinton Curtis, Nee and China. Raw story has taken an in-depth look at the claims made by Clinton Curtis, the vote-rigging whistleblower. In particular, they take at look at a fascinating subsidiary issue: Curtis' allegations of Chinese espionage conducted by one Henry Nee. Yang denies ever employing Nee, even though documentary evidence indicates otherwise.

The Chinese angle puzzles me now even more than it did before. I cannot help but compare the Nee/Yang affair to another simmering scandal: Israel's upgrading of Chinese weapons systems, no doubt making use of American know-how.

The mysterious blogger known as Xymphora has published an interesting analysis of this strange business. You'll want to read his comments here and here.

Xymphora's bottom line? Israel knows that the U.S. economy is headed down the tubes, and thus now hopes to befriend another 900 pound gorilla:

The American economy is just a big Ponzi scheme, with its prosperity an illusion created on its ability to borrow more and more money. Like all Ponzi schemes, this can't go on forever, and eventually the rest of the world will figure a way to get out as painlessly as possible. This will cause problems all over the world, but mostly in the United States, as the drastic decline in the value of the U. S. dollar will cause the cheap Walmart consumer goods made in China - the real opium of the masses - to become expensive consumer goods made in China.

There is some truth in this. But Xymphora's analysis does not explain the conundrum of the longstanding subterranean connections between the Reagan and Bush administrations and China.

Take note of the FBI's strange response to the Henry Nee spying scandal (see Brad Friedman's latest commentary here), which is almost as striking as Washington's lenient attitude toward Israeli/Chinese cooperation on weapons. The FBI's latest commentary on the Nee case may indicate an initial burst of investigative zeal followed by a hasty bout of cover-up.

The Nee affair has an obvious parallel in the infamous Wen Ho Lee case. Of course, Lee was cleared while Nee has pled guilty. However, as Robert Parry and others have pointed out, Chinese "theft" (do note the quotation marks) of sensitive U.S. nuclear data did, in fact, occur.

Unfortunately for the G.O.P. propagandists, it occurred during the Reagan and Bush administrations.

Why did Republican administrations turn a blind eye to China's unfriendly behavior? Because the Chinese had provided SA-7 missiles to the Nicaraguan contras. Some believe that Reagan and Bush had come to a quid pro quo arrangement with China. (For a summary of this theory, see here.)

Could a similar beneath-the-surface arrangement explain both the Nee/Yang mystery -- and perhaps even the Israeli ties to China? I'm honestly unsure. Moreover, I have no idea what favor China may have done for us to justify a further quid pro quo. The matter deserves further thought and investigation.

And yes, I'm quite aware that I am here treading on speculative and theoretical territory; doing so is sometimes unavoidable.

Scripps-Howard News Service has conducted a study in ten counties in various states, proving widespread ballot-counting problems.

The unofficial audit by Scripps Howard News Service uncovered malfunctioning voting machines, improperly designed ballots and poor accounting procedures around the nation.

The piece is not as clear as one would like, but it is still worth a read.

Salon finally gives the Conyers investigation respectful treatment. Way to go! Salon had become so cautious, I feared that they might do a slow fade into the NYT...

It's the only game in town. "Against the House: Only Chumps and Compulsive Gamblers Keep On Playing in a Rigged Game" is a good opinion piece by James Heddle.