"Christ, we put a Jew in there?" Nixon's nemesis revealed

[shereads]

Deep Throat outed himself today.

For decades, I held onto the hope that it was Pat Nixon who met Carl Bernstein in that shadowy parking garage, wearing that respectable cloth coat she must have come to loathe. But that was a pipe dream.

Thank you, Mark Felt, for following your conscience and helping evict a crime boss from the White House before his entire Enemies List could have their bedrooms bugged and their medical records stolen.

The kicker is, Nixon knew. He pegged Deep Throat's identity, on tape, a segment of which was just played by NBC News:

Nixon asks Haldeman what should be done about Felt, who "knows absolutely everything."

Haldemon replies that he's already asked Dean.

Nixon: "What the hell would Dean do?"

To his credit, Haldeman doesn't suggest that Felt should sleep with the fishes. This is America, after all; even the Nixon White House drew the line at murder, or at least limited discussions of murder to the 18 minutes that are missing from the tapes.

Instead, Haldeman says nothing can be done about Felt. He hasn't done anything illegal, "and if we go after him now he'll probably go on network television."

There is a pregnant pause.

Nixon: "Is he Catholic?"

Haldeman: "He's Jewish."

Nixon: "Christ. We put a Jew in there?"



Seriously, was American history this much fun when you were in school? We owe Dick Nixon our thanks for providing better material, just as we owe Deep Throat, without whom we might never have known about it.

~ ~ ~

And yet...

With all due respect to the Jew who helped force him from office, Nixon was probably less dangerous than the trained monkey that stammered its way through another press conference this morning, seeming for all the world like a kid trying to deliver a book report without revealing that he didn't read the book.

Monkey Moment One:

Responding to allegations by Amnesty International that his administration has created "a network of gulags" around the world, Dubya explained that reports of prisoner abuse are invented by "people who are trained to dis-assemble, which means to not tell the truth." "We have questioned those detainees," he added, "and they have not admitted to any abuse." Case closed.

Monkey Moment Seventy-Five:

Within seconds of bemoaning the financial burden placed on future generations by the failure of Social Security, he side-steps a question about his record budget deficit. (When the cameras are off, does Karl Rove pop an extra M&M in the president's mouth to reward a successful dodge like that one?)

Oh, what I wouldn't give to be a textbook publisher. I might be induced to add Creation Theory in exchange for the right to distribute my masterpiece on modern U.S. history, exactly as written.

I would tell the story of the Sixties through the OO's using nothing but direct quotes. Only at the high school level would I include the nicknames for informants, and explain the references.

~ ~ ~

"Where is Richard M. Nixon now that we finally need him?"

~ Hunter S. Thompson

 

[LadyJeanne]

It's too bad we don't have a deep throat in the barrel of monkeys. Or a snake. Surely, there's plenty of scandal and corruption in THIS White House.

 

[CharleyH]

Deep Throat outed himself today.

"Where is Richard M. Nixon now that we finally need him?"

~ Hunter S. Thompson

LOL - you are nuts! Deep Throat was Linda Lovelace!!!

GRR Politics

 

[shereads]

It's too bad we don't have a deep throat in the barrel of monkeys. Or a snake. Surely, there's plenty of scandal and corruption in THIS White House.

But we did!

Even better. We had informants who weren't afraid to go public - Richard Clarke and James Price and Joseph Wilson among others. No one cared.

Price's book, none of which was ever specifically denied by anyone in the White House, was based on 2000 pages of meeting minutes and other documentation. It quoted statements and recounted incidents as scary as anything on Nixon's tapes. Six people read it. I know, because I loaned my copy to the other five.

Wilson wrote his book after the White House punished him for telling the NY Times the truth about his WMD investigation, by telling the presss that Wilson's wife was a CIA agent. That's treason.

Remember when treason was considered scandalous? It wasn't a fun scandal, like sex. But unlike blow jobs in the Oval Office, treason used to be punishable by death. Now it doesn't even move the meter.

Maybe scandal and corruption are more impressive if the sources remain anonymous and are assigned porn names.

Price was Sec. of the Treasury, so he could have been "Green Door."

Richard Clarke: "Hard Dick."

Joseph Wilson...Hell, I don't know. The dog needs to go out. Wilson can be "Pussy Galore."

 

[shereads]

LOL - you are nuts! Deep Throat was Linda Lovelace!!!

GRR Politics

Linda Lovelace was Mark Felt.

 

[LadyJeanne]

But we did!

Even better. We had informants who weren't afraid to go public - Richard Clarke and James Price and Joseph Wilson among others. No one cared.

Price's book, none of which was ever specifically denied by anyone in the White House, was based on 2000 pages of meeting minutes and other documentation. It quoted statements and recounted incidents as scary as anything on Nixon's tapes. Six people read it. I know, because I loaned my copy to the other five.

Wilson wrote his book after the White House punished him for telling the NY Times the truth about his WMD investigation, by telling the presss that Wilson's wife was a CIA agent. That's treason.

Remember when treason was considered scandalous? It wasn't a fun scandal, like sex. But unlike blow jobs in the Oval Office, treason used to be punishable by death. Now it doesn't even move the meter.

Maybe scandal and corruption are more impressive if the sources remain anonymous and are assigned porn names.

Price was Sec. of the Treasury, so he could have been "Green Door."

Richard Clarke: "Hard Dick."

Joseph Wilson...Hell, I don't know. The dog needs to go out. Wilson can be "Pussy Galore."

I cared. Other people cared. We were outnumbered.

 

[shereads]

I cared. Other people cared. We were outnumbered.

I know you did.

We can't even be sure we were outnumbered. That's the beauty of the new USA.

 

[Virtual_Burlesque]

Is Deep Throat still Relevant?

Should We Jail Deep Throats. . .
February 6, 2005
by John W. Dean
John W. Dean is a former White House counsel and author, most recently, of "Worse Than Watergate: The Secret Presidency of George W. Bush."

I have little doubt that one of my former Nixon White House colleagues is history's best-known anonymous source — Deep Throat. But I'll be damned if I can figure out exactly which one.

We'll all know one day very soon, however. Bob Woodward, a reporter on the team that covered the Watergate story, has advised his executive editor at the Washington Post that Throat is ill. And Ben Bradlee, former executive editor of the Post and one of the few people to whom Woodward confided his source's identity, has publicly acknowledged that he has written Throat's obituary.

When that posthumous profile reveals the secret name, it will be flash powder on the long-simmering debate about reporters' use of anonymous sources — an issue much in the news lately because my former law school classmate, Thomas F. Hogan, now the chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, has been holding journalists in contempt of court for refusing to reveal their sources to a grand jury investigating the leak of the identity of CIA operative Valerie Plame.

 

[Edward Teach]

I cared. Other people cared. We were outnumbered.

We were out cheated.

Have you heard the latest? They are now seriously talking abut running Laura Bush for president in 2008.


Edward The Unamazed

.

 

[Wildcard Ky]

I'm too young to really remember anything about watergate, however there is one thing I find odd in what I've read today:

Mr. Felt was the head of the criminal investigation division of the FBI at the time, correct? If he was the overall man in charge of the investigation, why did he feel it necessary to anonymously go to the press before the investigation was concluded? In his position, it was illegal for him to leak information to the press about an ongoing investigation. He admitted in the Vanity Fair article that the reason he didn't want to be identified was because he feared prosecution. Prosecution is what's supposed to happen when you commit an illegal act.

So what was his driving force or motivation to go this route? He was in charge of the investigation, so it's not like he felt the investigation was being hampered by those doing the investigating.

As I say, I'm too young to remember all of this. So could someone please fill me in on what happened WITHOUT starting a political war? Just the facts please. Save the idealogical bickering for another time.

 

[Wildcard Ky]

Have you heard the latest? They are now seriously talking abut running Laura Bush for president in 2008.



.

Is that any different than the Hillary for president talk as the Clintons were leaving the Whitehouse?

Not that I think she'll ever run, but I don't see the difference between the two.

 

[Virtual_Burlesque]

. . . Have you heard the latest? They are now seriously talking abut running Laura Bush for president in 2008. . ..

Yes, they have had such success with Laura's "humanizing," when she performed her bit of business at the White House Correspondent's Association Dinner, it's no wonder her handlers are pumped.

That bit if theatre where she "interrupted" George to deliver a bunch of put-downs, was written by Landon Parvan, the man who wrote Nancy Reagan's "second hand clothes" routine in 1982.

 

[Seattle Zack]

This is so cool.

Like shereads, I really relish this.

You kids today, you don't know what it was like to challenge a popular president.. this was unprecedented. Modern Journalism 101 nowadays, but it was something back in '73.

And to live to see it come full circle, to see "Deep Throat" finally come forth... maybe our political circus has finally revealed itself. Naw, not hardly (just a joke there).....

 

[shereads]

Is that any different than the Hillary for president talk as the Clintons were leaving the Whitehouse?

Not that I think she'll ever run, but I don't see the difference between the two.

The difference is that Hilary Clinton has always had political aspirations, which she put on hold so her husband could run. When it was her turn, she took it. She was valedictorian of her graduating class at Wellesley, was near the top of her law class, keeps herself informed about world events, has been involved in social issues since before she met Clinton, is at least as qualified as many men who run for the Presidency, and is known to be a competent Senator. Laura Bush has never expressed a desire to do anything but be a wife and mother, so if she ran for office, it would obviously be a means for her husband's administration to sidestep term limits. Big difference.

The other difference is that Laura would probably win. She doesn't threaten anyone, she's not controversial, and the public wouldn't stand for it if anyone attacked her character the way they routinely attack Hilary's.

 

[shereads]

This is so cool.

Like shereads, I really relish this.

You kids today, you don't know what it was like to challenge a popular president.. this was unprecedented. Modern Journalism 101 nowadays, but it was something back in '73.

Wildcard, this is probably the best way to explain why Deep Throat insisted on anonymity. What was legal or illegal under an administration where the president condoned burglaries in an attempt to smear his enemies, and sometimes used the FBI like a personal Mafia?

As Zack points out, it was unprecedented back then for the press to investigate and expose corruption in the White House. Woodward and Bernstein and their editor at the Washington Post, and their key informant, did something that took enormous courage: they toppled the illusion that we could trust our government - if not to be right all the time, then at least to obey the law.

We were not happy to learn that the most powerful man in the world would stoop to petty burglary. Predictably, a lot of people blamed the press for proving it. If public sentiment hadn't finally gone the other way - if Nixon had been a more likeable man, with better handlers, and if he hadn't carried out the "Saturday Night Massacre" and self-destructed - the people who exposed Watergate would have lost their careers at the very least. He'd have shot the messenger and gotten away with it. They knew they were taking that risk.

His position at the FBI would have made Deep Throat more aware than most people of the extent to which the White House would go to punish its enemies: sic the IRS on you or your family so that you'd have to spend a fortune defending yourself, whether or not yoy had done anything wrong; dig into your past; conduct a smear campaign against you or people you cared about; if your wife was a CIA agent, they might even leak her identity to the press, endangering the lives of her informants and rendering useless the information she'd been gathering about terrorism....

Oops. That last one belonged to this White House. I'm not sure Nixon would have sunk that low.

I kid, but it's a good example of why there might be reason to assume that legality is open to question when you're an enemy of the White House. Look at how the Justice Department handled the Plame investigation, warning the White House hours before they officially requested e-mail records and other evidence that might have helped the investigation. The law is what the Justice Department says it is, unless you have the time and means to oppose them in court. You might be ruined anyway.

Even when the Attorney General acts against the president who appointed him, there's no guarantee of protection. In Nixon's case, the Justice Department appointed a special prosecutor for Watergate, Archibald Cox, but Nixon got rid of him. Whether he did so legally is open to debate, but that didn't make Cox less fired.

In May 1973, Watergate was still viewed by many as merely a third-rate burglary. Attorney General Elliott Richardson, a former law student of his {Archibald Cox} appointed him to the thankless job of special Watergate prosecutor. When the Senate investigation revealed the existence of audio tapes ordered by President Nixon, Special Prosecutor Cox subpoenaed them from his employer.

After two appeals of the subpoenas were turned down, the president offered to give the Senate and Cox written summaries of what was on the tapes. Cox turned down the deal. Nixon then ordered Richardson to fire him. But the attorney general refused to fire his former professor, and so did Assistant Attorney General William Ruckelshaus. Nixon then turned to the solicitor general, future Supreme Court candidate Robert Bork, who did carry out the order. The event became known as the "Saturday Night Massacre."

http://www.igpa.uiuc.edu/ethics/cox-bio.htm

If Nixon hadn't destroyed the last illusion of ethics by firing a man whose own supervisors refused to do it, Watergate might never have caught the public imagination the way it did. His belief that he was above the law is what did him in, not Woodward & Bernstein.

If you want the whole scoop, read "All The President's Men." For half a scoop, rent the movie. Every college freshman in America wanted to major in journalism back then. We didn't dis the media; we were grateful to the media for defending the Constitution from an imperial presidency.

And to live to see it come full circle, to see "Deep Throat" finally come forth... maybe our political circus has finally revealed itself. Naw, not hardly (just a joke there).....

 

[shereads]

delete double post

 

[Lord DragonsWing]

I'll agree with you Wildcard. Deep Throat should of handled it through the investigation process. Especially since he was the second in charge of the FBI at the time. Leaking information as did led to a new era for politics and press.
Of course he was a follower of Hoover. And was upset when he or one of the other Hoover followers were not named Director of the FBI and Nixon appointed someone from outside. So why did he do it? A feeling of righteousness or being vindictive?
No one can answer that but him. And even his actions should answer that. He refused to come forward for 30 years because he knew what he did was wrong. He admitted that to his family.
Some may call him a hero. To me, he broke the law that he was serving. Nixon was guilty without a doubt. He should of been impeached. But to do it the way Deep Throat did was illegal also. If a detective does that today he's prosecuted and loses his job. That's why no one knew who Deep Throat was for so many years. He knew he was wrong.
He's no hero. He's a snitch. He didn't follow the law as he was sworn to do.

I'm too young to really remember anything about watergate, however there is one thing I find odd in what I've read today:

Mr. Felt was the head of the criminal investigation division of the FBI at the time, correct? If he was the overall man in charge of the investigation, why did he feel it necessary to anonymously go to the press before the investigation was concluded? In his position, it was illegal for him to leak information to the press about an ongoing investigation. He admitted in the Vanity Fair article that the reason he didn't want to be identified was because he feared prosecution. Prosecution is what's supposed to happen when you commit an illegal act.

So what was his driving force or motivation to go this route? He was in charge of the investigation, so it's not like he felt the investigation was being hampered by those doing the investigating.

As I say, I'm too young to remember all of this. So could someone please fill me in on what happened WITHOUT starting a political war? Just the facts please. Save the idealogical bickering for another time.

 

[shereads]

I'll agree with you Wildcard. Deep Throat should of handled it through the investigation process. Especially since he was the second in charge of the FBI at the time. Leaking information as did led to a new era for politics and press.
Of course he was a follower of Hoover. And was upset when he or one of the other Hoover followers were not named Director of the FBI and Nixon appointed someone from outside. So why did he do it? A feeling of righteousness or being vindictive?
No one can answer that but him. And even his actions should answer that. He refused to come forward for 30 years because he knew what he did was wrong. He admitted that to his family.
Some may call him a hero. To me, he broke the law that he was serving. Nixon was guilty without a doubt. He should of been impeached. But to do it the way Deep Throat did was illegal also. If a detective does that today he's prosecuted and loses his job. That's why no one knew who Deep Throat was for so many years. He knew he was wrong.
He's no hero. He's a snitch. He didn't follow the law as he was sworn to do.

He's a hero and a snitch. We have laws to protect whistle-blowers now, because we've learned that it's sometimes necessary to violate the sanctity of the system to save it. If only we could protect journalists from being imprisoned for protecting their sources, there might be more heroic snitches and fewer leaders getting away with criminal negligence, lies and misinformation.

You seem to have missed the point about Felt: He couldn't let the investigative process work because it wasn't being allowed to work.

Nixon was secretly obstructing the FBI investigation while publicly supporting it.

The law itself was being corrupted from within to protect the perpetrators of a crime against the Constitution and the justice system. To know something so significant and remain passive isn't upholding the law; it's being enslaved by it, at the cost of your honor, and ultimately to the law itself.

You say he "admits he was wrong" and conclude that he acted out of bitterness because he wasn't named Hoover's successor. If that's the case, he risked an awful lot on the narrow chance that Woodward & Bernstein and the Post wouldn't be crucified and that Nixon wouldn't crush them all like bugs.

The other explanation is that he was conflicted, because he respected the law and would have to violate it to save it from a much bigger threat. For whatever reason, he decided not to be a good Nazi. As a result, we were faced with some ugly truths.

If it makes you feel any better, the press has been about as aggressive as scared puppies since 9/11 and the firing of Bill Mahr. ("From now on, people had better be careful what they say," as Mr. Rumsfeld pointed out.) When is the last time you read any follow-up on the Plame investigation, or the one by the CIA into Ahmad Chalabi's alleged work as a double agent for Iran while he was still on our payroll, or the Halliburton overcharge scandal?

There are no more Woodwards and Bernsteins, and there is currently underway a campaign to assure that there will be no more snitches. We can all rest easy then. A nation of happily ignorant serfs.

Here:

Conflicted And Mum For Decades

By Dan Balz and R. Jeffrey Smith
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, June 1, 2005; Page A01


W. Mark Felt always denied he was Deep Throat. "It was not I and it is not I," he told Washingtonian magazine in 1974, around the time that Richard M. Nixon resigned the presidency in disgrace after a lengthy investigation and threat of impeachment, aided in no small part by the guidance Felt had provided to The Washington Post.

It was a denial he maintained publicly for three decades, until yesterday. Throughout that period, he lived with one of the greatest secrets in journalism history and with his own sense of conflict and tension over the role he had played in bringing down a president in the Watergate scandal: Was he a hero for helping the truth come out, or a turncoat who betrayed his government, his president and the FBI he revered by leaking to the press?

There were plenty of reasons that he felt such conflict. He was an FBI loyalist in the image J. Edgar Hoover had created for the bureau in its glory days -- a career official who lived by the bureau's codes, one of which was the sanctity of an investigation and the protection of secrets. He chased down lawbreakers of all kinds, using whatever means were available to the bureau, and was convicted in 1980 of authorizing illegal break-ins -- black-bag jobs, as they were known -- of friends of members of the Weather Underground. He was later pardoned by President Ronald Reagan.

But if there were reasons to resist playing the role of anonymous source, there were other motives that drove him to talk. Felt believed that the White House was trying to frustrate the FBI's Watergate investigation and that Nixon was determined to bring the FBI to heel after Hoover's death in May 1972, six weeks before the break-in at the Democratic National Committee's Watergate offices occurred.

"From the very beginning, it was obvious to the bureau that a cover-up was in progress," Felt wrote in his 1979 memoir, "The FBI Pyramid."

Felt may have had a personal motivation as well to begin talking to Post reporter Bob Woodward. At the time of Hoover's death, he was a likely successor to take over as FBI director. Instead the White House named a bureau outsider, L. Patrick Gray III, then an assistant attorney general, as acting director and then leaned on Gray to become a conduit to keep the White House informed of what the FBI was learning.

Felt's identity was revealed with the help of his family in a Vanity Fair article released yesterday. A statement from the family, read by Nick Jones, Felt's grandson, described how conflicted he was over whether his role was noble or dishonorable.

"Mark had expressed reservations in the past about revealing his identity and about whether his actions were appropriate for an FBI man," Jones said. "But as he recently told my mother, 'I guess people used to think Deep Throat was a criminal. But now they think he's a hero.' "

Felt operated during extraordinary times in U.S. history, and in the history of the bureau he had been trained to protect at all costs. Faced with a rogue White House, an explosive investigation and political pressure that must have been excruciating, he decided to spill secrets, anonymously helping to change the course of history through clandestine meetings with Woodward in the middle of the night in underground parking garages.

Nixon and his White House colleagues during this period were engaged in what the House Judiciary Committee would eventually call a series of criminal acts -- obstruction of justice, withholding of material evidence, coercion of witnesses, and misuse of the CIA and the Internal Revenue Service.

A secret investigative unit was run from the White House, supported by the CIA and financed by campaign funds to spy on enemies and to break into a psychiatrist's office in a search for confidential files. Twenty-one participants in what came to be known as the Watergate scandal, including the president's counsel, chief domestic adviser, attorney general and campaign finance director, pleaded guilty or were convicted of the crimes documented by the FBI and brought to light -- with Felt's help.

Throughout his career, Felt was seen as a model FBI official. Harry Brandon, who retired from the FBI as deputy assistant for counterintelligence and counterterrorism, recalled making a presentation to Felt as a young agent in the bureau. "He was a tough guy," Brandon said yesterday. "Straight. Very honest. Very straight. "

cont'd at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/31/AR2005053101411_2.html

 

[shereads]

Watergate chronology with links to the Post's original news stories:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/onpolitics/watergate/chronology.htm

 

[Couture]

Is that any different than the Hillary for president talk as the Clintons were leaving the Whitehouse?

Not that I think she'll ever run, but I don't see the difference between the two.

The difference between the two, is that one is a democrat and one is a republican. Other than that, I feel the same as you. Haven't we had enough of this fraternization of the political process. We have George Bush, then we have Clinton, then George's son. Now, possibly Laura or Hillary. Maybe Bush's other son. This isn't a democracy - it's a monarchy.

Do you mean to tell me of 293 million Americans, this is the best we can do?

 

[Couture]

So what was his driving force or motivation to go this route? He was in charge of the investigation, so it's not like he felt the investigation was being hampered by those doing the investigating.

It wasn't so much of an investigation as it was a dog and pony show. Anything he found would have been buried.

It's obvious at this point that this administration has lied about all of the key reasons for the war in Iraq. There was a supposed 'investigation', but it was really a dog and pony show.

 

[impressive]

Do you mean to tell me of 293 million Americans, this is the best we can do?

The best and the brightest steer clear of politics (and write smut, instead).

 

[rgraham666]

The best and the brightest steer clear of politics (and write smut, instead).

Or are Canadian.

 

[dr_mabeuse]

I'll agree with you Wildcard. Deep Throat should of handled it through the investigation process. Especially since he was the second in charge of the FBI at the time. Leaking information as did led to a new era for politics and press.
Of course he was a follower of Hoover. And was upset when he or one of the other Hoover followers were not named Director of the FBI and Nixon appointed someone from outside. So why did he do it? A feeling of righteousness or being vindictive?
No one can answer that but him. And even his actions should answer that. He refused to come forward for 30 years because he knew what he did was wrong. He admitted that to his family.
Some may call him a hero. To me, he broke the law that he was serving. Nixon was guilty without a doubt. He should of been impeached. But to do it the way Deep Throat did was illegal also. If a detective does that today he's prosecuted and loses his job. That's why no one knew who Deep Throat was for so many years. He knew he was wrong.
He's no hero. He's a snitch. He didn't follow the law as he was sworn to do.

Excuse me, but are you INSANE? This man had knowledge of impeachable crimes at the HIGHEST LEVEL of the US government--CRIMES, not blow-jobs, not incompetence, not "bending" the truth, but good old Russian Style, consitution-usurping, rights-violating above-the-law crimes by the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES against its citizens. Iintimidation, threat, harassment, imprisonment, investigation, dismissal, rumour, ruin, disgrace--these were Nixon's stock-in-trade. Nixon, the POTUS who'd put himself above the law.

And you're going to go "Shame on him! He's a snitch!"

He helped bring down the one man known to engage in felonious behavior in the white house, the man whose lust for the presidency led to 10,000 additional American deaths in Viet Nam when he went behind Johnson' back at the Paris peace talks and told Hanoi that if they would just hold out till hew won the presidency, Dick would cut them a better deal. Oh, and if Le Duc Tho could just up the offensive and increase the number of American casualties to make Johnson look bad, that might be a good idea too.

Besides which, if you'll take the time to read "All the President's Men" and not just rent to movie, you'll see that Deep Throat gave them no classified information. He gave them hints. he advised them on their investigation. He didn't come out and tell them what the FBI knew. He operated on the same principle as most unnamed sources in Wahington have always operated and operate today: deep background. That's where his name came from: deep background, deep throat. Get it? He sure as hell didn't invent leaking information. It's been going on since the Continental Congress.

Sure he felt bad about it, The man was a career suit; it couldn't have been easy. But he knew what would happen with the FBI investigation. The same thing that happened with the CIA investigation: zip. Nixon had nis spies in all the centers of power. He controlled everything. The story was broken not by the FBI or the CIA or NSA or congress, but by two low-life police-beat reporters who slid under eneryone's radar

Snitch. Yeah. And so was Paul Revere. And Alexander Buttersworth, and everyone else who ultimately put the interest of the country above their own self-interest. Ralph Nadir reporting on Detroit's gasoline bombs in the 60's. The guy who blew the whislte on Enron. The guy who released the Abu Ghraib photos. Whenever they embarrass your heroes they're "snitches". Whenever they embarrass your enemies they're "heroes".

Honest to God, I don't know where people get their values these days.

"Your boss is a lying, murdering cheat who's subverting the constitution, running the White House like a peronal mafia headquarters and killing our sons for his own political purposes. Why didn't you say anything?"

"Because I didn't want anyone to think I was a snitch. I figured it was better to keep my mouth shut."

The sad thing is, think of how many people there were who didn't say a fucking thing. And they're still there.

 

[Little Bird]

The difference between the two, is that one is a democrat and one is a republican. Other than that, I feel the same as you. Haven't we had enough of this fraternization of the political process. We have George Bush, then we have Clinton, then George's son. Now, possibly Laura or Hillary. Maybe Bush's other son. This isn't a democracy - it's a monarchy.

Do you mean to tell me of 293 million Americans, this is the best we can do?

It's maybe even worse here in germany now: Elections will be one year early this time and we're given two choices. The bad thing is we don't want either of it and there's no one at all who we would like to elect.
Our curent chancelor will not win the election but it's even worse for the leader of the other partie. She's the only one who could take that position and everyone knows she will fail, too.