With recent stories in the news about "sharp differences of opinion" on physician-assisted suicide coming from our Supreme Court, the issue has come up for discussion again.
Decatur Pride has a good recitation on the issue. Check it out.
Question: If the Grim Reaper loses his job because of this, will it still be George Bush's fault?
6 comments:
Doctors helping people die.
It does not make sense to me at all. In what situation is dying sooner preferable to enjoying the time you have left? I suppose if someone was in a lot of pain, but isn't that why we have morphine?
I would like to be educated on the other side of this issue.
Hey There Decatur Conservative,
Any comment on Harriet M's withdrawal? Was it all a plot of the Vast Left-Wing Conspiracy? Or is W not a true conservative? Or was he momentarily distracted?
How about the indictment on 5 counts of the Vice President's Chief of Staff? Is it reasonable to assume from the facts of the case that the Vice President discussed outing a CIA agent with his Chief of Staff? What does that do to the identity of the Republican Party as that of the party of national defense, always standing up for the troops and the military-industrial complex? This veteran wants to know.
norm:
Harriet Miers withdrew because of the obvious lack of agreement among republicans over her nomination. I believe President Bush nominated her because of her record and because he knew the woman and what she stood for. Unfortunately, many conservatives either ignored this information, or like me, were 60/40 on wanting her in/not knowing what to expect. There was no VLWC on her; in fact, the left had virtually nothing to say on the woman, except to make sure everyone knew her religious background.
As to Scooter, he was indicted on counts of alleged lying to investigators and I believe, perjury. And no, it is not reasonable to assume there was a conspiracy to "out" a CIA agent. First of all, Valerie Plame-Wilson is an employee of the CIA, doing a DESK JOB. She was NOT COVERT at the time of the "outing," and Libby or other Whitehouse staff were among many, many people who knew she worked for the CIA. (See MCR's post.)
This does nothing to the identity of the republican party with respect to the military, because so far, there is no crime affecting the military nor our troops. The left wishes to somehow create a story connecting Libby's indictment and the war in Iraq. The only conspiracy that has been proven is that Joseph Wilson, a democrat, lied to the Whitehouse when he said that there was no attempt by Saddam to get yellow-cake uranium from Niger (the Niger government has since said that Saddam DID try to buy some,) and with his op-ed in the NYT, Wilson attempted to discredit the Bush Whitehouse and the war in general. The Whitehouse did not send Wilson, the CIA sent him on their own. Guess who volunteered him? His wife, a member of the CIA. When the discovery of who this "Joe Wilson" was that was bashing the president/war effort was discussed, the widely-known knowledge of Ms. Plame-Wilson's affiliation with the CIA was also discussed.
Did Libby do something wrong? Probably not. What I think happenend is that he thought he had done something wrong, and then tried to cover up what he thought was a crime, and then got caught covering it up. Too bad for him, but this does absolutely nothing to prove anything beyond the fact that Libby has been indicted.
I am interested to see what else this prosecutor comes up with. I really don't think it's going to be much.
Lincoln Republican,
Thanks for your thoughtful response. I particularly appreciated your comments concerning Harriet Miers.
With regard to Scooter Libby, I'll grant you that it goes beyond the currently known facts to state that there is proof that there was a conspiracy to out a CIA agent. With regard to the business about her working a desk job, however, I've heard the following point elsewhere and I'll repeat it here: it is up to the CIA to classify agents as to whether they are covert or not. Operatives can be covert--just going from or just going next to such a posting, or on such a 'career track'--even with currently being at a desk job. In short, it's the CIA's job to classify their people, and they had her in a covert classification.
Beyond that, though I appreciate the tenor of much of your post, to say that Wilson at that poinst was "bashing" the White House, or to infer that he was a Democrat lying in wait to strike at a Republican president, does not do justice to the facts. His "first strike" had to do centrally with saying that the Niger business was off base--the same point the Downing Street memo was making--remember the Downing Street memo, anyone?
Granted, because I'm a Democrat, I look at some of this through the lens of someone getting a partisan advantage out of it. That is nothing compared to how I look at it as a Democrat and a veteran and someone who had a very low-level intelligence job once. Here's the thing: I can remember Adlai Stevenson showing damning evidence about the Soviets and the Cuban Missle Crisis to the UN and being proud to be an American with regard to how that was carried out. Now I wonder: the next time that we have a quite justified case to make--will it concern North Korea? Iran? Syria?-- and we try to make such a case, it won't be the America of the Cuban Missle Crisis and proof they'll remember. It'll be the America of a good man--General Powell--giving falso information to justify a war.
I'm not sure what you heard about Plame-Wilson's status, but what I've heard over and over from CNN, FoxNews, and various talk shows, is that Plame WAS NOT covert at the time of her "outing." I guess we'll have to wait and see.
Yes, Wilson did attempt to paint the Niger business as off-base. Unfortunately, the Niger government exposed his lie. I'm not sure why he lied; I assume because of his potential democratic bias prevented him from seeing/reporting the truth.
BTW, the Downing Street Memo was proven a fake by British Newspapers. The reporter who allegedly "discovered" the memo later told other reporters that he "re-typed it and destroyed the original." Not very convincing as evidence...reminds me of the Bill Burkett National Guard forged documents story.
I would love to know what the "lie" was that supposedly got us into this war. If it's the "WMD" that the left loves to remind us all that wasn't there, let the same left be reminded that CBS, NBC, ABC, CNN, Bill Clinton, John Kerry, Al Gore, Ted Kennedy, and others ALL SAID FROM 1998 ON that there was overwhelming evidence to show that Saddam DID possess WMD and that he intended to use them. In fact, he had. First on Iran and then on his own people. To say that Saddam Hussein NEVER had WMD is lunacy. He did; he obviously took his own sweet time in the 10-12 years that the UN gave him to hide them or move them to Syria (or maybe to Iran?...God knows.)
I think the next "justified case" will probably NOT be acted upon, to be perfectly honest. When you have intelligence that says "X" is an impending danger, and you don't act on it, then you're crucified. (Bush on 9/11 , even though it was really Clinton's screw-up; Bush on Katrina, even though it was local/state officials' screw-up.) When you do act on it, then you're again crucified, because it was "all based on lies and that Halliburton and big oil cronies are the only reason we went to war."
Republican or Democrat, the next president to deal with the "quite justified case" will probably think twice or even three times before acting, and then have to deal with a nuclear detonation in the middle of Chicago, or some similar crisis, because that president will not want to have to deal with the media's/opposition party's constant attacks on their position. While the political games get played, that which we would not want to happen, happens. I hope I'm wrong, but I truly believe it will come down to that.
To substantiate my position questioning Joe Wilson's credibility, I offer the following references:
Weekly Standard 1
Weekly Standard 2
MSNBC
Senator Roberts Website
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