Letters to the Editor
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Glenn (from the post)
Any neoconservative accused of wrongdoing is, by definition, innocent and wrongfully persecuted. The real criminals are always the prosecutors, the investigators, and the accusers. And even when a noeconservative is demonstrated to be guilty, the pure Goodness -- the Overarching Importance -- of their mission means that they ought to be immune from punishment.
You hit it on the nail. One short graf says it all. How could anyone who's doing Gawd's Own Work (or some similar piece of Important Business) do anything wrong? How could anyone rationally put any roadblocks in their way of any kind as long as they're doing such?
Cheers,
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Not every neocon stands up for Conrad Black!
Richard Perle, stood up, instead, for Richard Perle.
http://nytimes.com/2004/09/06/business/media/06perle.html
Perle Asserts Hollinger's Conrad Black Misled HimSeptember 6, 2004
WASHINGTON, Sept. 5 - Last fall, as the board of Hollinger International prepared to oust its founding executive, Conrad M. Black, the director most protective and supportive of him turned to a friend and balked.
"This is a kangaroo court," a person recalled the director, Richard N. Perle, as saying in defense of Lord Black, who had been accused by investors of improperly siphoning millions of dollars to other companies he controlled.
But last week, Mr. Perle's view of Lord Black changed. Issuing his first public statements since being heavily criticized in an internal report for rubber-stamping transactions that company investigators say led to the plundering of the company, Mr. Perle now says he was duped . . .
. . . The Breeden report said that because Mr. Perle was a "faithless fiduciary," the company would seek to compel him to return the $5.4 million in payments he received as a director . . .
. . . In the last few months, Mr. Perle, 62, has also alienated former allies at the Pentagon for his continued defense of Ahmad Chalabi, the Iraqi opposition leader who has recently come under suspicion of leaking important intelligence information to Iran. Mr. Perle was forced to step down from the Pentagon advisory board after disclosures about his plans to work for Global Crossing and his meeting with a Saudi businessman, Adnan Khashoggi.
Mr. Perle's friends say that he is the victim of unjustified attacks that are motivated more by policy vendettas than substance.
"It is not surprising that the attacks on Richard have accompanied his rise to influence," said Jeane J. Kirkpatrick, who served as ambassador to the United Nations in the Reagan administration. She first met Mr. Perle when the two were advising Senator Henry M. Jackson, a Washington Democrat and staunch conservative on foreign-policy matters. She emphasized that she knew nothing of his business dealings, but was speaking about the criticism Mr. Perle has encountered over his policy positions.
Other friends say they are confident that he will be vindicated.
"Over the years, endless accusations have been made against him," said Michael A. Ledeen, a friend since the 1970's and colleague of Mr. Perle's at the American Enterprise Institute. "All have proven false, and I'm certain this one will be as well." . . .
- - New York Times, September 6, 2004
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Conrad black seems to have ties to Bush Sr, through Carlyle
Conrad Blacks Hollinger was once ( or is ) backed by George H.W. Bush's company Carlyle group. If he is, or was or might be, a partner of Carlyle, there is a strong sense that nothing really bad is going to happen. He is virtually a terrorist himself.
http://www.prisonplanet.com/112403carlylegroup.html
The Carlyle Group, known as the Ex-Presidents Club because of the number of former world leaders it employs, is considering taking a stake in Hollinger International, which owns the Telegraph titles, the Jerusalem Post and the Chicago Sun-Times, according to those close to the firm.
'It's unusual for a group of assets to come to the market like this. We would look to sell off the Jerusalem Post and Hollinger's stake in the New York Sun. Conrad [Black] would have to step out of management, but that does not mean he would have to let go of his equity stake,' said a Carlyle source. 'Ideally, we would look to take a 25-40 per cent stake. That would allow us to put people on the board,' the source added.
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The Neocon Manichean worldview
Glenn's post is an excellent illustration of the Neocon Manichean--and authoritarian--worldview. Since the Neocons are "the good guys," that means anyone critical of them, or who stands in their way, must be "the bad guys" and "the enemy." The Neocons always act in unison, because there can be no dissent among the ranks. Dissent means you're the enemy. There can be no substantive disagreement in their view. One is either fully on board with their aganda, or one is aiding the enemy. It's authoritaraianism to the nth degree, it's childish, and it's thoroughly manichean. No nuance, just blunt black and white fantasy.
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"The House I Live In." author unknown.
a gift to Michele's family. A poem read by officiating house historian, Doug Clayter, and in memory Of William "Wild Billy" Raymond Smith.
January 1, 1933 to May 3, 2007, he graced the earth.
The poem is written with a couple misspellings on a manual typewriter.
"The House I Live In."
What is America to me
A name, a map, a flag I see, a certain word, "Democracy,"
The house I live in,
A plot of earth, a street,
The grocer and the butcher and the people that I meet,
The children in the playground, the faces that I see;
All races, all religions, that's America to me.
The place I work in, the worker at my side,
The little town or city where my people lived and died.
The "howdy" and the handshake-- the air of feeling free,
The right to speak my mind out, that's America to me.
The things I see about me-- the big things and the small
The little corner newstand and the house a mile tall;The wedding and the churchyard, the laughter and the tears,
The dream that's been a growin' for a hundred fifty years.
...........Poem is Half complete...darn slow type computers...be back?
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Pull wool for wits
If Cho Seung Hui had simply made a big show of joining the Federalist Society or signing on to PNAC before killing all those people, the neocons would be carving his face onto Mount Rushmore as we speak.
Oh man. That's downright painful, but you just have to look at the many domestic terrorist cases archived on Dave Neiwert's site to see how true it is. White guys with garages full of ricin and homemade bombs do not get called terrorists. They're either ignored or (privately) hailed as heroes.
Wolfowitz is, beyond any doubt, being railroaded. Wolfowitz should not resign. If Glenn Greenwald had an ounce of journalistc integrity, he'd deal squarely with the fabulous, textbook reporting done by the WSJ editorial writers on the Wolfowitz story.
I would have thought he would feel OK about it. After all, in his words:
"I think the premise of a policy has to be we can't afford to wait for proof beyond a reasonable doubt. "
PWNED!