--
In all the talk shows, newsprint, mags, bloggers, etc, I never hear
anyone quote Karl Rove's comment that "Joe Wilson's wife is fair
game". Why not?
Kenneth Wharton
--
Bob, I try to be a logical person. I assume you do, too ... though
sometimes I think you come up short, unfortunately.
This isn't to rag on you, or play "Gotcha!" I'm just someone who,
when he sees contradictions, seeks an explanation.
And for the life of me, I can't figure out why you keep writing that
the corpress and attendant punditry are "snookered" by this
administration's acts of deceit.
They know the reality ... they're idiots if they don't, right?
Perhaps there's some element of willful ignorance involved ... but to
me that's just as damnable. These folks have been around the power
players for years ... some for decades. Hell, many of them *are*
power players, wouldn't you say?
So I can't conceive of any scenario in which they are being misled
into their "conventional wisdom". They intentionally seek to create
that alternate universe because it ultimately serves their interests,
doesn't it?
Isn't that the only logical way to view it? How do you see it
differently? I honestly would like to know, 'cause it's truly
frustrating to see someone who gets so much right seemingly so
off-base on such a fundamental question.
I'm sorry the fundraising's going so slowly. Despite the qualms I
have with some of your work, I still get quite a bit of important
information from it, and would hate to see the site close.
Regards
Doug Latimer
Oakland
--
To the editor:
I think the major logical fallacy being promoted about Armitage's
involvement in the Plame Affair is the notion that the earliest
revelation of a covert agent is the only culpable count. In fact,
every instance, by any knowledgeable source, is a separate federal
felony count. The existence of an earlier revelation should not in any
way disqualify Rove or Libby from prosecution. Fitzgerald's acceptance
of this argument calls his own independence into doubt. In a murder
with multiple agents (as with Agatha Christie's Orient Express), it
hardly exonerates the subsequent wielders of the knife to know that
some other has stabbed before them. Indeed, their subsequent stabbing
is all the more guilty, having been perpetrated against one who is
already injured and helpless.
Ben Burrows
Elkins Park, PA
--
Good job! How they wiggle and wiggle! The CIA outing is really
stuck in their craw--it's such a dead giveaway that they don't
believe what they profess, don't walk their talk! I'm glad Novak is
as forthcoming now as he is; he was "played," and he ought to be
thoroughly ashamed of himself. In effect, he allowed himself to
become Rove/Cheney & Company's "hit man"; and he's been around so
long he can't argue he had no idea what was afoot.
The wigglers do, however, worry me. David Broder's famed
impartiality seems to be morphing into indifference to truth and a
lazy tolerance. Tolerance of Karl Rove is, of course, a very
convenient thing to exercise in D.C.
In general though I see signs of a dawning of awareness. You are
less alone, less an exception, than you once were. Not only are
there literally millions of Internet readers who have been thinking
with you and along your lines for a long time now, but now--to my
astonishment--similar sentiments are alive and apparently "well"
(pending a mysterious run-over by a taxi-cab) on MSNBC with Keith
Olbermann; AP is reporting on dissenting New Yorkers regarding the
official version of 9/11; senators are refusing to endorse a
practice of using "co-erced testimony" (yeah--should be a
no-brainer); CNN is looking into what our government was doing
9/11--with a surprisingly open-minded interview of the Loose Change
kids; the Inspector-General for the Department of Interior is saying
the Gale Norton crew nurtured an altogether amoral culture at
Interior; etc.
While it could still be argued that those against secrecy and
privilege have yet to win even one significant battle, there does
seem to be a sea change transpiring. For this, you deserve credit,
and I hope it buoys your spirits and speeds your efforts toward a
restoration of something like democracy in this deeply pained
country of ours.
