<o.t> Dear Emory, I don't really want to make this into another President Clinton referendum thread, but since I did open my big mouth, I will respond one more time. You are more than welcome to have the final words on the subject.
On both counts, they are not conclusive, to say the least. While there are considerable concerns [actually, recently, there is a case that a factory specializing in military metallurgic foundry was sold to the Chinese 1/2 the price of the leverage buyout from the local workers, so I think the cozying up to the Chinese go beyond the White House deep into the bowel of the military-industrial complex.] Btw, I thought it was satellite technologies, not missile technologies. Recently, the Ukrainian just lost 12 satellites when Zenit blew up. And the titan also blew a couple. The point is that business growth, national security and globalization are fast becoming a complex issue. One cannot honestly believe in investing in say, Boeing, without implicitly acknowledge technology transfers, civil as well as military, do not happen - since most big order foreign buyers like China do demand a piece of the action. So, does that mean investors are a sell out? Probably not. [Btw, personally, I habitually avoid investing in military cos.]
I know little about the FBI files situation. And indeed, since similar situation happened when President Clinton was running for president before his 1st term [I believe some people [State Dept?] related to the President Bush adminstration was trying to dig for dirt, so the former would be doubly guilty if he were implicated in using any FBI file to hurt his opponent [a la Hoover {sp?) the 1st FBI director.] What I do know is that the Prez's present predicament has very little to do with White Water. Now, I surmise that this is a weak defense when one wants to judge a Philosopher King; but thanks goodness, according to de Torqueville, we americans choose a middle-of-the-roader to a sage for a Prez [sorry if I am making a bit hyperbole here <sg>]
Anyway, if one has strong evidence that the current president of the US has done immense harm to humanity, by all means write to one's local congressional delegates to voice one's great concerns. However, my concerns are that we are swept up by great emotion and conventional bias and ignore the great lessons from american history and literatures. Salem was not the hell mouth! "Scarlet Letter" is an eternal plague if we can't go beyond our own conventional standard of morality. Finally, I am not hear to defend the President. AFAIMC, he may very well be fault ridden, and indeed, there may even be innocent people suffering in this world b/c of his policies, but he has also brought something to the table [of peace and prosperity] without causing too much suffering in the process. So I guess I am guilty of advocating a least-of-all-evils principle.
Well, enough ramblings from me <G>
addendum: dear tippet and Henry, I read your respective response after I posted this. Instead of responding to you individually, let me just acknowledge you here and leave it at that. If you feel the President is lying to you , then you are entitled to be furious. I guess I am too old to take this personally. I can still remember Kent State of 71 [I wasn't there personally, thanks goodness,] so I see different kind of lying. Anyway, different people have different perspective, so we can settle for an agree to disagree.
best, Bosco |
