You may have heard of Podcamp, an annual meeting and educational conference for "social media". I go to learn more about blogging and other kinds of electronic communication. I've been at least twice, and each time I remember always hearing someone say "never apologize for not posting on a blog". Never the less, I am not happy I didn't post since last Sunday.
But at the minimum, I like to look at Jack Kelly's weekly column. This week Kelly seems to return to his roots, raising questions about how much the defense intelligence community knew about 9/11 before 9/11. I think we all know Kelly is a hawk, but he also seems to like David and Goliath stories of patriotic soldiers standing up to a faceless bureaucracy determined to protect itself. Kelly seems to have no sources of his, instead he does the sort of summary that most anyone with an internet connection could do. Granted, Kelly is only columnist, not an investigative reporter, but I believe Kelly has been working on variants of this story for a long time (thus having old stories and information he can reuse). Is there something there? I dunno, maybe. The Justice department and the Defense department have been just as secretive and I guess vicious under Obama as they were under Bush. In fact, many of the events Kelly talks about took place during the Bush administration, something Kelly acknowledges late in his column (after taking his obligatory shot at Jamie Gorelik).
Actually, his saying Bush might be involved in this cover up is the one thing about this column that is relevant for today's political situation, and is interesting in itself. Although the Tea Party professes itself to be independent, they were of course guided by people like Dick Armey behind the scenes and Sarah Palin very much out in front, and funded to some extent by the conservative billionaire Koch brothers. So the Tea Party has ties to the Republicans, and it is really Republican or right leaning independents who are interested in the Tea Party. Tea Party backed or endorsed candidates are running as Republicans, not as third party candidates. But where the Tea Party parts ways with the Republican party is in their demands for ideological purity. Apparently George Bush has failed that test, and Jack Kelly is, if not throwing him under the bus, at least giving Bush a bit of a shove. I guess Kelly is still angling to become a local voice for the Tea Party.
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2 comments:
Not sure if Jack is angling to be the local voice of the local tea party - but I could be wrong.
I am amazed (as always) at his ability to casually flip a zombie lie into the discussion without even a hint that what he's saying has been debunked for years.
This column it's Jamie Gorelick's "Wall" that stopped the DOD from telling the FBI about Mohammad Atta.
Obviously I don't actually know if Jack Kelly has talked to anyone in the Tea Party personally, so I may be overstating his intentions. I do think I am justified in at least suggesting that Kelly wants to be friends with the Tea Party.
I think the "Wall" is actually quite fascinating. You have the counter terrorism/counter espionage folks at the FBI, using informants, perhaps using females to blackmail foreign agents and possibly other methods that violate rules of evidence and legal procedure. Then you investigators who want to make a legal case against terrorists or spies or whatever. Naturally, if the counter terrorism/espionage folks talk to the investigators, even suggesting who should be investigated could have given defense attorneys the perfect wedge to eventually free a defendent.
Of course conservatives point to this as an example that liberals (e.g. Clinton and Gorelick) are not serious about defending America or protecting citizens. As I say, an interesting issue that deserves it's own post or more.
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