Vote notes -- Madsen and more

Wayne Madsen: Well, I haven't the time to write the longish piece that I had hoped to write. Here are a few basics:

1. Remember that $29 million check, allegedly used to pay off the vote fraud conspirators? It's a fake. I'm betting that Madsen himself will admit this in his next article.

2. Remember Madsen's unnamed sources? One of them, apparently, is the fellow I mentioned in my very first piece on all this: Marion Horn jr., sometimes known as "J.R." Horn. This is the convicted fraudster (and one-time Republican politico) who received a suspiciously lenient sentence.

He has claimed (I am told) that he has has functioned as something of a front man for the Bush family and similar interests. He also says that he is now sick of acting as their fall guy.

All of which brings us to a familiar question: The guy's a con-man. How do we trust what he says? True, many a criminal case has depended on testimony from a crook, but the issues we confront here go rather beyond a garden-league robbery.

The problems with the story now seem rather challenging (to say the least!), but Madsen seems to believe that further evidence can bring it all together. I sincerely hope he can, and I encourage everyone to read his upcoming piece in the Online Journal. This man's resume is such that he deserves the benefit of every doubt.

I was initially excited and later disappointed when Madsen revealed that Five Star Trust (or Investments) has been used to launder recovered Japanese war booty, sometimes known as "Yamashita's gold." That booty was quite real, and it constituted a staggering amount of money: BILLyuns and BILLyuns, as Carl Sagan might say -- and we're talking about 1945 dollars.

And that's the problem. The amount is so huge that many feel disinclined to accept this particular "buried treasure" story. Even people who believe in ghosts, flying saucers and gnomes will smile and tell you "pull the other one" when you tell them about Yamashita's gold.

The story is true. But that doesn't mean it's believable.

The election-fraud controversy is already a hard sell in many quarters. Do we really want to bring a World War II mystery into the mix?

(Parenthetical note: Madsen, I am told, suspects that the name "Five Star" comes from MacArthur's rank; the General's notoriously reactionary staffers were the first to learn of the hidden booty. However, the name may derive from reports that the gold ingots were marked with stars to indicate the level of purity.)

Ohio results certified. Well, at least Ken Blackwell didn't drag his count out until December 6. He has finished toting up the Ohio vote, and as predicted, Bush's margin of victory has shrunk, from 136,000 votes to 119,000 votes. Provisional ballots broke heavily for Kerry -- and apparently he did not fare as poorly as some might have expected vis-a-vis the overseas absentee ballots, which would include the military vote.

The question now is: Can a recount close the 119,000 gap? Iffy, to say the least. The obvious cases of electoral abuses (supplying insufficient machines to black districts, for example) should, but won't, result in a revote.

Summit county. Remember the story yesterday about imminent arrests regarding fraudulent registrations? The story didn't mention which party committed the alleged crime, but I cynically predicted the opening of a rightist campaign to pin blame for vote fraud on the Dems. Looks like others are thinking the same way.

Before the election, the right-wing media were trumpeting the tale of "fake" registrations. The G.O.P. sent out certified letters to addresses on registration forms, and when those letters went unanswered, Fox news and other rightist outlets trumpeted the new "evidence" of vote fraud.

Now think about that one. Certified letters cost money. How would the G.O.P. operatives know which addresses to target unless they were the ones who filled out the fake Democratic registration forms?

Next step: Target a couple of Ohio Dems as "ringleaders" in a plot to create fake registrations. Maybe someone will be paid off to offer a confession and take the fall. The resultant brouhaha will make the country forget all about the massive vote fraud perpetrated by Republicans. The New York Times and the L.A. Times will mutter something about problems on both sides. Coulter, Limbaugh and Hannity will have further reason to scream about liberal deviltry.

This devious little scheme has been boiling on the back burner for quite a while. Sometimes I admire the conservatives. I really do. A plan like this one takes guts and forethought.