Letters to the Editor
Terry A.
Published Letters: 177 Editor's Choice: 22
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What a give-away.
[Read the article: Gonzales aide to take the Fifth]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"The potential for legal jeopardy for Ms. Goodling from **EVEN** her most truthful and accurate testimony under these circumstances is very real . . ." So says her attorney.
I love it. It appears that she and her attorney have gone over the options carefully and **EVEN** her most truthful and accurate testimony could get her in trouble. And if she can get in trouble by telling the truth, just imagine what might happen if she testifies the way she was planning! Or the way she's been told to do!
What an administration.
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Maybe a reason . . .
[Read the article: Gonzales aide to take the Fifth]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]My previous "Giveaway" e-mail misses an important point.
Lying to a Federal officer is a crime regardless of whether you are under oath. Just ask Scooter.
So if Monica Goodling has already been interviewed about this by Federal officers, she might be taking the Fifth now because she lied in the interview, and can't afford either to 1) contradict herself by telling the truth now, or 2) lie again under oath and risk a perjury charge.
This is, incidentally, one of the main reasons that President Feeb will not allow a transcript of any interviews of White House aides. If an aide lies to a Senator or Congressperson during an interview but there is no record, there is no way to charge them with lying to a Federal officer because they can lie about the lie.
In my prior e-mail I suggested that Goodling's attorney revealed a corrupt attitude by implying that there were options besides giving the "most truthful and accurate testimony . . ." but that was unfair. Goodling's attorney may have come to a case where his client has *already* told the lies, and thus "her most truthful and accurate testimony" NOW would in fact expose her to criminal prosecution.
Still . . . what an administraiton.
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There's a word for what Morris Sheppard describes.
[Read the article: Role-playing at the Interior Department]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]It's called chutzpah.
Conservatives in general, and President Feeb's administration in particular, make most of their political hay by creating problems that (they claim) demand the "solutions" they wanted to do all along. They create a mammoth budget deficit, and address it by cutting funding for social programs they've always hated. When those social programs become ineffective, they use that as an excuse to cut the programs more, or even altogether. Chutzpanomics.
As far as foreign policy, they accuse countries of being evil until those countries respond in kind. They use those belicose reactions and the real or imaginary conduct that goes with it to justify military action that further alienates countries around the world. The near-universal loathing for the United States they cite as the reason for yet more military spending and intervention overseas. Chutzpolitik.
The classic example of chutzpah is a man being sentenced for killing his parents who pleads mercy because he is an orphan.
The conduct of this administration makes that example seem pretty tame.
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Who IS this reporter?
[Read the article: It makes all of us a little crazy, actually]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Perino's "spin" is appalling enough, but who was the reporter who asked whether Dowd's reference to "personal journey" suggested Dowd's issues were personal, not "legitimate disagreements" with the White House? Perino comes out almost magnanimous just for saying Dowd disagreement was legitimate!
Please tell me it was someone from Fox. Please. Throw me a bone.
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Legal advice
[Read the article: Gone fishin']
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Would it be violating Federal law to wish that President Feeb were going to spend his vacation quail hunting with his Vice President?
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Real agenda?
[Read the article: The GOP's secret weapon?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Given his periodic disappearing acts, I wonder if Cheney's health is a lot frailer than is publicly known. If so, he probably wouldn't last through his first term. I can't believe he would run, and I can't believe he would get the nomination, and I want to believe that he would never be elected. But if all of those things happened, his choice of Vice-President would tell all.
"Jeb Bush, white courtesy telephone . . ."
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More unintended irony (read, "hypocrisy")
[Read the article: A very expensive neocon love affair]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]My favorite thing about this is that the World Bank often conditions aid to a developing country on the country showing progress in elimination of governmental waste and corruption.
Honestly, you can't make this stuff up.
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Lincoln wept.
[Read the article: In other words]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]This transcript brings to mind Thom Lehrer's comment about how the U.S. Army took the American ideal of non-discrimination for race or creed to its logical conclusion, refusal to discriminate on the basis of ability. (His experience, not mine . . .) The NeoRepublican affection for intellectual mediocrity in elective office is heartbreaking.
Still, whenever I start to despair about the idea that our nation chose this feeb to be President, I remind myself that he was inaugurated twice, but never elected.
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Another Elephant in the Room
[Read the article: Iraq: Why the media failed]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]This excellent article doesn't mention one more factor influencing the unconsidered embrace of the Adminstration's policies by the "mainstream media." I've said this before, and here: forget Fox. Remember:
NBC = General Electric
CBS = Westinghouse
ABC = Disney
Two defense contractors and the remains of an organization whose "classic" works are used in European schools to train people in the recognition of fascist symbolism.
The desire to please shareholders goes beyond the generation of innofensive pablum - jingoism and military adventure directly feed the coffers of the owners of two of our major networks and the enduring zeitgeist of the third.
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Continuing Feebishness
[Read the article: It's like bringing them home sooner, only different]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]If I have it right, yesterday President Feeb told an American Legion audience that if Congress doesn't send him a supplemental funding bill without conditions **soon,** the military might be forced to extend tours in Iraq because the money is needed for training and equipping replacements. "In other words," delayed replacements = extended tours.
Let's set aside for the moment the fact that there were far greater delays under the Republican Congress without any servicepersons apparently having been deployed without necessary equipment (or, at least, not because of the delay).
What I'm really curious to see is how the "mainstream" press reports this - whether anyone besides Fox takes a "He warned them - now look!" approach. Fifty bucks says no one but Olbermann points out that the tour extension was obviously in the works long before Le Grand Feeb "warned" that it might become necessary because of Congressional attempts to rein him in.