[...]Wholesome Reading » Blog Archive » From the Comments: Corrupt Dinners[...]…

Bottom line, the law says that it’s illegal. If you think it should not be illegal, then change the law.

I do post from work and from home, so that is surely the problem along with some regular glitches in your software platform.

Lately, for reasons I don’t quite understand, I mark comments as approved (I’ve never denied a non-spammer) but they haven’t always shown up here on the site. I hope to upgrade the wordpress platform shortly, and perhaps that will solve the problem. I emphasize that this is kind of a random occurrence and doesn’t seem to be affecting the vast majority of comments.

Apologies for a few fallow days… I’ll be back shortly.

Steven,

Your denying bias over and over again doesn’t make it any more untrue, but you can go on with that if you enjoy it.

Heck, you even admitted it in 2008. I wish you would just be as honest with us now. You stated:

Sure, I’m a Hypocrite, But That’s Not Important Right Now

When Michael Isikoff was constantly on TV keeping the Monica Lewinsky story alive, I found him to be kind of irritating, as that story never should have been a story. However, now that he’s on the McCain campaign’s ties to Freddie Mac, I’m kind of digging him.

http://www.wholesomereading.com/2008/09/28/sure-im-a-hypocrite-but-thats-not-important-right-now/

Face it. You are no different than Olbermann, Maddow, Hannity, or Limbaugh other than I’ve never heard them claim they were not biased.

Today’s news reports a far worse security breach. This guy allegedly leaked HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of classifed records. But, this case will go under the radar because is isn’t useful to attack Republicans.

Federal officials have arrested an Army intelligence analyst who boasted of giving classified U.S. combat video and hundreds of thousands of classified State Department records to whistleblower site Wikileaks, Wired.com has learned.
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/06/leak/

Hantu, does this really make sense? Joe Wilson qualifications for his mission don’t depend on his wife’s job. Either he was qualified or he wasn’t. If anything, his wife’s qualifications made him look a bit better.

Can you imagine criticizing Barack Obama because his wife has a law degree from a top school? Or, criticizing Bush because his wife is a librarian and teacher? Do you think less of Dan Quayle because his wife is a lawyer and a novelist?

The established fact, which I believe you agree with, is that Plame’s name was leaked accidentally by Armitage. As I understand it, Plame’s status as a CIA operative was fairly widely known.* An intensive investigation found no evidence that the White House leaked the name. I’m not sure that a subsequent leak is even possible. Once something is public, the cat is out of the bag. And, the supposed political reason for the non-existant White House leak doesn’t even make sense.

*A few years ago a cousin of mine would never tell the family which government agency he worked for. However, the cat was out of the bag when we found out that he worked in the CIA Building.

Thanks for making my point. It is almost like you and Steven are willing accomplices.

The last I knew, Bill Clinton lied in court to beat a civil lawsuit by a citizen of the United States. However, even though Progressives like you claim to be for the rights of the little guy against power, you cheer her right to a fair civil trial being steamrolled by one of the most powerful people in the world.

What were the words I heard over and over to describe her during the episode, “white trash”?

I can’t help being reminded of the words by the Progressive saint, Margaret Sanger, “human weeds” to describe Jews, blacks, hispanics, Catholics, the disabled, and the poor.

Progressivism, evil then, evil now.

You know, you state that you want to discuss topics relevant to the “wider debate”, yet you choose topics that are almost all outdated, about a President that has been out of office for 1 1/2 years (or his party), and that the majority of Americans disagree with you about (in many cases, overwhelmingly).

The “wider debate” (and more important) is why our government owns car companies and banks. Even worse, they are being bludgeoned and intimidated by the government. We have one of the most powerful US Senators stating: “Corporations that received bailout funding from the federal government should not be permitted to use taxpayer money to influence elections.”

Great, our government is now telling corporations how to spend their money. Not exactly the vision the FF’s had in mind. Can you say corporatism?

The “wider debate” is our government looking to “reinvent journalism” through the FTC http://www.ftc.gov/opp/workshops/news/jun15/docs/new-staff-discussion.pdf

Take a look at page 15. “Additional funds to sustain journalism?” This should make EVERY American shudder, even as a “Discussion Draft”. Yet, you (even as a journalist) and the other useful idiots who are blind to everything but “R” and “D” are worried about a shamed ex-President who brought this country to the brink of financial disaster along with a willing Congress.

Go back through your archives. Compare your criticisms about Gitmo between each President. One started it, the other has kept it open despite promises.

Then compare The Patriot Act.

Then Afghanistan.

Then Iraq. Aren’t we supposed to be out by now?

I’d bet a year’s salary that the condemnations are one-sided.

The fact is, if you were honest with yourself and us, you would admit to having scorn for Carville, Begala, Limbaugh, Hannity (well, the last two).

Yet, you are no different than those clowns.

With regard to Libby, I remember both the Special Prosecutor and the jury saying that the discussions about Plame weren’t some small passing reference in a busy day. He spent a lot of time talking about the Op-Ed with a number of different people, and the idea of talking to reporters about it was central to the strategy. They also both felt that he was the fall guy for someone else (presumably the VP).

Their intent was to question Wilson’s credibility by painting him as someone who got a paid junket because of who his wife was…

If you remember, it was during this time that Cheney’s office would leak something to reporters, solely so that Cheney or the President could then cite the published report as an independent validation of something they said. Something that Cheney remains very good at till today.

He’s really done more damage to the Republican party than anyone over the past 20 years… I think President Bush probably gets too much of a bad rap. His greatest fault was a lack of intellectual curiosity and an ideologically rigid belief system. Bad, but nothing particularly unique in American history. That he was so poorly served by those he appointed (and he has a lot of blame here), particularly the VP, was made it such a disaster.

It’s amazing that Cheney and his daughter are still welcome at GOP events. Even more amazing that his cronies, like Frank Gaffney, who have been proven wrong about EVERY SINGLE prediction they made about foreign policy are still treated as some sort of elite thinker in some conservative circles. Another sign of the stagnation of the movement….

Libby wasn’t convicted of leaking Plame. He wasn’t accused of leaking Plame. He couldn’t have been so accused, because the leak of Plame was not a crime.

Hantu, I’m glad you agree that Armitage was the original leaker. I am mystified by what political purpose was served by Libby supposedly leading Plame subsequently. The fact that Wilson’s wife was a CIA agent doesn’t hurt Wilson’s credibility. If anything, it’s the reverse.

-The Administration, particularly the VP’s office, was aggressively going after Joe Wilson after he wrote his op-ed (proven accurate) after President Bush mentioned Iraq and Niger.
-Libby stated that he spoke with the VP about Wilson’s wife, who worked for the CIA, as they were preparing to go after Wilson.
-The VP claims he doesn’t recall- the special prosecutor didn’t believe this and neither did the jury, but didn’t have evidence to charge Cheney.
-Libby leaked the name and her status to a number of reporters- absolutely for political purposes
-Armitage was the original leak to Novak- he claims accidentally, Novak said otherwise
-Karl Rove confirmed Plame’s CIA role to Novak and spoke to another reporter about it- he claims the reporter told him, but there is some inconsistency with his testimony and other White House officials. In fairness, the special prosecutor decided not to charge Rove, so it’s unlikely that he’s involved.

The Vice President’s Chief of Staff was sentenced to jail time as a result of this- the most senior White House staffer to be convicted of a felony in ages, so not sure why you can dismiss this so flippantly.

Now, I do believe that President Bush had nothing to do with this, and was genuinely disturbed to find out that this was going on. Many have reported that this is the crux of the distance between the President and Cheney.

1. Plame was outed by Bush or Cheney or someone close to them.
2. For political purposes
3. The outing was a serious crime.

None of these is true.