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Santa_Cruz
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Or give him a medal.
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AlanFromWichita
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Santa Cruz:
Get this: they say in a gushing editorial that the Watergate incident proves that “no one is above the law” but they don’t happen to mention that what Felt did was outside the law – just that “some critics fault him for not going public himself with the charges” to offset the Eagle calling him a “patriot” and saying that it took “courage” for him.
The wonderful punch line to the editorial: " Deep Throat has spoken, reminding us again of Watergate’s essential lesson: No one is above the law in a democracy. Leaders must be held accountable to the people, and to the truth."
Aaaaagh! This editorial is exactly the kind of thing that will keep leaders from being held accountable to the people.
Alan
In our local liberal newspaper the Wichita Eagle, they essentially have.
Get this: they say in a gushing editorial that the Watergate incident proves that “no one is above the law” but they don’t happen to mention that what Felt did was outside the law – just that “some critics fault him for not going public himself with the charges” to offset the Eagle calling him a “patriot” and saying that it took “courage” for him.
The wonderful punch line to the editorial: " Deep Throat has spoken, reminding us again of Watergate’s essential lesson: No one is above the law in a democracy. Leaders must be held accountable to the people, and to the truth."
Aaaaagh! This editorial is exactly the kind of thing that will keep leaders from being held accountable to the people.
Alan
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didymus
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wjhii said:
Interestingly, John Dean (Counsel to President Nixon) among others does not believe Felt was really Deep Throat. According to Woodward & Bernstein’s book All the Presiden’s Men DT had connections to the Justice Dept, the White House, the Republican Nat’ Committee and the Committee to Re-elect the Presdient. Felt had only tenuous contacts in the WH and no connections at all in the RNC and CREEP.
Whether Felt is Deep Throat or not forgive me if I don’t take denunciations from diehard Nixonites like Pat Buchanan and felons like G. Gordon Liddy too seriously.
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Shoshana
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Code:
:crying:Blessings,
Shoshana
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AlanFromWichita
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That’s understandable. His crimes stand on their own merit, without being denounced by anybody, if he intentionally provided classified information to the press.
When I handled secret information while working for Boeing on B-52 radar/navigation systems, I literally could not go to the bathroom without taking it with me or locking it in an approved cabinet (locked desk drawer wasn’t good enough). Our department secretary (back then no computers and one typewriter in the group) could not edit my document because her typewriter wasn’t secure and the ribbon could have been read afterwards. In certain office areas there was a red flashing light that ran on the ceiling if there was even a person in the area that did not have particular clearance for that project, and when we escorted such a person into the room we had to shout out “non-clear person entering the area” although some guys like to clown around and yell, “unclean! unclean!” instead. We could not discuss any classified matter in a room that was not secure – for example the ventilation ducts had barriers so nobody could crawl through them, if there were windows (usually not) they had to have multiple panes with music playing between them so that spies could not sit outside with lasers and pick up window vibrations. All this is just a secret clearance, not a top secret clearance and more, like the FBI director undoubtedly needs. Taxpayers spend a whole lot of money keeping secrets secret, and as it is there are still leaks that are not intentional at all.
When I got my secret clearance, COMSEC (Secure Communications clearance to work on the UHF radio design for the EC-135 Airborne Command Post) and others, it was made absolutely clear that there were severe penalties for breaking any of the rules, even if by accident. I have no regard whatsoever for someone who leaks classified information on purpose. As far as I’m concerned, it’s an act of treason, Buchanen and Liddy notwithstanding.
If Felt was not the real “Deep Throat” then he’s a fraud and a scoundrel, or he’s sufficiently out of it that his family is capitalizing on his dementia.
Either way the man is far from a hero. That is, unless you believe that 1) the ends justify the means, and 2) there was no legal way to expose corruption - or - that it’s OK to fake being a famous person for financial gain and fame. If he was doing us all such a favor to expose corruption but remained unknown due to fear of reprisal, then I’d say if he can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen instead of slinking around in the shadows like a cowardly, vindictive cockroach.
Alan
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ShroudMan
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This just proves there can never be any true reasonable dialogue. Once again the infamous black & white but never a gray area sides have lined up.
The radical right calls Felt a “criminal”
The radical left calls him a “hero”
People searching for a “center” where most truth lies, will realize the man was neither. He was a typical human being employee who was angered by Nixon at being passed over for promotion, who at the same time had come into very damaging information about Nixons wrongdoings, and ALSO at the same time couldnt go to his own supierors cause THEY couldnt be trusted. Put all that together and I see a guy who is just as flawed as anyone else with an axe to grind as well as having info that his President was a criminal. I see nothing but Gray Area here and refuse to demonize the man. Felt didnt get rich off this, chose to stay unknown and now in his twilght years has given in to his family to come forward to try and make a buck so they could pay some bills and also to head off the money grubbers Woodward & Bernstien who while on TV are trying to pretend they are all for the man coming forward are more than likely freaking out that now the book they have been waiting to publish revealing Deep Throat once Felt died isnt gonna make anywhere near the money they had hoped…ha, ha… too bad…
Pat Buchannan can sqawk all day long, and keep searching for Commies in his closet, but Pat backed a criminal President… and the left can cackle about a heros but there are no heros here either.
The radical right calls Felt a “criminal”
The radical left calls him a “hero”
People searching for a “center” where most truth lies, will realize the man was neither. He was a typical human being employee who was angered by Nixon at being passed over for promotion, who at the same time had come into very damaging information about Nixons wrongdoings, and ALSO at the same time couldnt go to his own supierors cause THEY couldnt be trusted. Put all that together and I see a guy who is just as flawed as anyone else with an axe to grind as well as having info that his President was a criminal. I see nothing but Gray Area here and refuse to demonize the man. Felt didnt get rich off this, chose to stay unknown and now in his twilght years has given in to his family to come forward to try and make a buck so they could pay some bills and also to head off the money grubbers Woodward & Bernstien who while on TV are trying to pretend they are all for the man coming forward are more than likely freaking out that now the book they have been waiting to publish revealing Deep Throat once Felt died isnt gonna make anywhere near the money they had hoped…ha, ha… too bad…
Pat Buchannan can sqawk all day long, and keep searching for Commies in his closet, but Pat backed a criminal President… and the left can cackle about a heros but there are no heros here either.
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gilliam
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Not really. Might be more a pro-old media vs pro-new media arguement. See this editorial from the Left newmedia:
**Why Did Deep Throat Leak?
****Hint: It wasn’t out of a sense of patriotism.
**By Jack Shaferslate.msn.com/id/2120148/
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heneggs1
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Alan, you are everywhere on this chatbox, so I assume you are retired. Elsewhere, you correctly judged I was needling you in questioning your jumping on Felt with both feet, perhaps with little knowledge of the extraordinary circumstances of the early 1970s in which Felt found himself as the operating head of the FBI confronting a President of the United States and his supporters engaged in a criminal conspiracy to sidetrack the Watergate investigation by corrupting and disrupting the FBI. Perhaps, neither of us would have taken the course Felt did. However, while I respect your experience in handling classified material within a civilian organization, I don’t think it comes close to Felt’s position.
You raised my ire in immediately jumping on Felt with both feet, though you are not as bad as those with such remarks about a man with dementia (Felt) who say they “hope he doesn’t get a dime,” or he ought to be jailed. At 91, no less?
Sorry I jumped on you, but I think you judge from afar, and not too compassionately either.
Heneggs
PS By the way, yes, I am well acquainted with Washington of the 1970s, the FBI, and top secret clearance and above. I won’t go into the detail that you, so let us agree to disagree.
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jjwilkman
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personally, i think g. gordon liddy was the only man among the bunch. he stepped forward and said, yes i did it. i respect him for that. oliver north also demonstrated character.
MY two cents! (i don’t know how to do pictures yet)
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misericordie
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Yup, ha ha ha. I agree with you. Amazing.:nope:Having just come out of the convent, I was horrified with the term! my senses received a shock…and to this day, images still crop up when that term is used! No getting away from it!Code:
Blessings,
Shoshana
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Fitz
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And what to they call Linda Tripp? I can’t print it here or I will get censured.
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aimee
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I do not approve of what Linda Tripp did…what is it called…
snitch? betraying a confidence?
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heneggs1
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“Alan from Wichita”, I find you everywhere on this net al;ways dengrating Mark Felt in one way or another. At one place elaborating in detail on your being given a “secret” clearnance at a civilain job and somehow connecting this to your desire for Felt to be chastized for doing what he did. At this post you are disagreeing with your newspaper who shows compassion for Felt. I am curious, though you were never in such a position as Felt, as to how you would have handled it? What gives with your desire to apparently sympathize with those who wish prosecute a man who occupied a high position in a government agency, did what he did to help successfully disrupt an attempt by the then President of the United States and his henchmen in a criminal conspiracy. You are mostly in agreement with those officials who went to jail as a result of Watergate, and now mouth off how his is no hero. Felt never claimed to be. Let’s let the poor 91 year old guy now with dementia go to his grave in peace without dancing beforehand on it.
Heneggs1
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David_Paul
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C-Span just ran a Meet the Press interview with Mark Felt from 1978. The guy is creepy. Asked if he was deep throat, Felt said no but he wouldn’t be ashamed if he was, Deep Throat did a great service to the country.
Interview will be replayed tonight at 9PM.
aimee…if someone asked me to commit perjury as the Clintonistas asked Linda Tripp, I would do everything I could to destroy that person. That is not being a snitch. It is self-defense. Tripp didn’t start anything. Clinton did
Took a lot of guts for her to go up against the entire Executive branch. She could have simply lied to the Grand Jury. She knew the Blumenthal/Hillary smear machine, various liberal prosecutors and the MSM would try to destroy her.
Interview will be replayed tonight at 9PM.
aimee…if someone asked me to commit perjury as the Clintonistas asked Linda Tripp, I would do everything I could to destroy that person. That is not being a snitch. It is self-defense. Tripp didn’t start anything. Clinton did
Took a lot of guts for her to go up against the entire Executive branch. She could have simply lied to the Grand Jury. She knew the Blumenthal/Hillary smear machine, various liberal prosecutors and the MSM would try to destroy her.
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misericordie
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Images of what? That “movie” you mention?Having just come out of the convent, I was horrified with the term! my senses received a shock…and to this day, images still crop up when that term is used! No getting away from it!Code:
Blessings,
Shoshana
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AlanFromWichita
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I wish. Long story. Laid off, mental disability, really very ugly. Soon I will have to find an honest way to make a buck, but I not looking forward to anything that resembles returning to a cube farm.
Thank you for noticing I have no desire for revenge against this man or anyone else. Personally I have no desire for anyone to be punished for anything, except as pure instruction, and I accept it as a concession to how well our society can place limits on behavior.
My big beef is that what he did was clearly wrong, regardless of the ends. People do evil every day and God turns it into good, but that doesn’t mean the person who did the evil was a hero. It is this “hero complex” that I’m mostly against. Most of the time when I see people bicker it is as if there are two gangs of kids in a sandbox. Who is right is irrelevant; the question is whether our side is winning.
I trust you meant that sincerely, even with the “but” and all. I’ll try to be more civil in return, even though I have to admit I was pretty pleased at the way I responded to a couple of your comments. That’s just my pride speaking; pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.
Oh, please don’t ask me to “agree” to disagree. Nothing against you – it’s a personal thing. I will concede to a disagreement, though. Honestly I kind of forgot what we were arguing about and what our current status is regarding our contention.
As you might notice I often speak as if I take things more seriously than I always do. If I really got all worked up about things that are wrong, then I’d go psycho.BTW, thanks for the PM. Write anytime.
Peace,
Alan
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AlanFromWichita
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Wow; I may try to watch that. If he is that confused, then he probably would not be able to stand trial anyway even if prosecuted. Poor guy.
Alan
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Lizzie
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Wrong. This was a Felt quote from the 1970s. He maybe addled now. Then he was lying.
Felt was #2 in the FBI at the time of the Watergate break-in. He was no piddling underling. He had the power and position to use legitimate channels to report to the grand jury any illegalities.
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gilliam
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Correction, he was number three. The number two guy was very ill and seldom came to work.
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Lizzie
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Hoover died in May of 1972. At that time Felt/Feltz was #3. The break-in occurred in June of that year when newby Gray was #1 and Felt #2.
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