Tim,

Thanks so much for being clear on the facts in your story regarding Republican Kit Bond's accusation that Joseph Wilson is responsible for his wife's outing. I've followed the Wilson story very closely from the beginning, and it's maddening to hear politicians and talking heads twist Wilson's words regarding Cheney's role in arranging his Niger trip. When will anchors and reporters in the mass media get some teeth?

We're so thankful for Salon, Internet publications such as yours, and for comedy television for maintaining what grip this country has on reality!

Mark

A note regarding Diana Witt's question...

The British weapons expert who was cited as the likely source for a BBC story that their government "sexed up" a government dossier on Iraq, and appears to subsequently have commited suicide, was David Kelly, not David Kay.

It'd be interesting if there were an update on Kelly's death...

David Kay, by the way, was the US Iraq weapons inspector who, when issuing his final report, began his comments to the US Senate with the words "Let me begin by saying, we were almost all wrong..."

Some patriotic, some partisan; many would point a disapproving finger at whistle blowers and forthright officials such as Jack Murtha at times such as these. Whether the event is the release of photos from Abu Gahreb, exposure of interrogations under extradition, vast anti-war protests or generals speaking out, many want to criticize those exercizing their voices, and not those in Washington wielding our sons and daughters.

Some points to consider for these folks:

1. We in the public sector must face the possibility that there are times when our elected officials - our President and his Cabinet, our Congress - act so directly against our national security interests, against principle, against international law and against basic human values we cherish that the practice of quiet patriotism is no longer appropriate. We owe it to our sons and daughters in uniform, dead and injured by the thousands, to face that fact of human nature and the cocain that is Power.

2. Those serving in the military take an oath not to comment against their leadership while serving, and we in the public sector must both appreciate the importance of that oath, and respect it. For those who promote public devotion to the leadership at all costs, rather than shove that oath in front of the few who speak out while serving in order to damn them, we might step back, and ask if what our government is doing could be so perilous for American interests and indeed, so unduly perilous to our fighting men and women, that some members are willing to break that oath in order to answer to a higher duty to their country. That sense of duty, which most of these folks would only exercise in a very extreme situation, deserves our respect, as does the pragmatic oath that it breaks.

As for we in the public sector, we MUST speak out, if only because those in uniform are sworn not to.

Hurl tomatoes at vocal generals, celebrities and active citizens if you must. Yes, it can fairly be observed that some opponents of war will oppose any war, and that some heroic points of activism such as, perhaps, visiting enemy territory to deplore your government can be difficult to justify. At the same time, you won't find any references in the texts of our founding fathers for an obedient electorate left in the dark by a superficial press, a secretive government and cowering patriotism. No, quite to the contrary. They'd seen that movie before, and wanted no part of it.

Rove era Republicans don't care what people walzing into a focus group session want. They don't care what they can get them to respond to during the two hours they're with them. (No surprise - their policies don't serve middle America...)

No, modern Republicans care about getting those people behind their candidates over a period of months, awash in orchestrated media manipulation.

If the Democratic Party even realized that it has a job to make sure its Presidential candidate gets elected [wincing, as I recall 2004...], it has all of the "movement" in this country that it needs to do so. As a marketing director buddy of mine says, all it needs to do is have its candidate make Three Common Sense recommendations, and set about with a planned, coordinated presence in the media centering around sensible, centrist elected officials, and colorful, jazzy minions.

Sheesh!