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Dan Rather managed to both offer a pseudo-apology for the forged documents and at the same time maintain that he (yes, he; he is, after all the arbiter of what will be "news") was still right about the "content" of the documents being legitimate. Rather said (in part):

This was an error made in good faith.

Excuse me? If due diligence was not done prior to the broadcast, then it was not a "good faith" error. CBS, in fact, verged on co-conspirator status. At the very least they are guilty of a cover-up and a conspiracy to defraud their viewers.

The executive producer, Mary Mapes, contacted Joe Lockhart in the Kerry Campaign to notify him that Burkett was their source and he should contact him as well. This is an incredible violation of campaign ethics. We have state and federal violations of forgery laws violation of at least two state laws on illegal influencing of elections and violations of federal campaign laws.

The question that needs to be answered now is how many people will go to jail because of this? We know that there is at least one forger, and that person should got to jail. Bill Burkett knowingly passed on forged documents and lied about it to everyone involved, so he should go to jail. At CBS Mary Mapes needs to go to jail. Dan Ra^ther, while apparently not in violation of any criminal statutes, should be forced to resign over his role in this scandal.

The unfortunate thing is that unless the public (that means you!) cries out for justice, none of these people will go to jail.

So here is what you need to do!

No person, during the course of any campaign for nomination or election to public office or office of a political party, shall knowingly and with intent to affect the outcome of such campaign . . . [f]alsely identify the source of a statement, [or] issue statements under the name of another person without authorization.

Any person who shall, without authority, sign the name of any other person to any letter or other document, or falsely represent that any other has written such letter or document, knowing such representation to be false, for the purpose of influencing votes, . . . shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.

You can jump to the Ohio Attorney General web site or go to the New Hampshire Attorney General web site.

For those living in any state where CBS has an affiliate, you can complain to your state attorney general that CBS has tried to influence an election with the use of documents they new were forged. You can also file a complaint with the FCC to revoke that CBS affiliate's license to broadcast for violating the public trust.

Finally, if you received any solicitations for campaign contributions that mentioned the forged documents or their content, file a complaint with the FEC.

Justice must be served! We cannot allow this fraud to go unpunished!

Long Live the Pajamhadeen!

If due diligence was not done prior to the broadcast, then it was not a "good faith" error.

This is an incredible violation of campaign ethics

Register a complaint with your state attorney general.

File a complaint with the FEC.