"I hope President-Elect Sen. Obama and Vice-President-Elect Sen. Biden don't roll over for this Village show."
If Obama/Biden roll-over, they will be rolling over for the next four years.
Posted by Judith at January 7, 2009 07:06 AMand Obama will look weak.
Posted by Judith at January 7, 2009 07:07 AMactually, I agree with Rachel Maddow's take-this was a clear message to enablers like DiFi and Jello Jay that change is coming.
I wonder how long it will be till someone points out that DiFi herself said that the Pres is "entitled to the staff he wants" and voted FOR Mukasey and some of the other execrable Bush appointees, incl SCOTUS picks.
(full disclosure-I lived in SF during the 80s, when she became the accidental Mayor and I always supported her. she was good on all the right issues, held a lesbian wedding at her house, and was attentive to the needs of her community. but I don't know her anymore.)
Posted by susan at January 7, 2009 07:48 AMSusan, I was thinking the same thing - Maddow was really good yesterday, sorting out some of the metamessages in the "snub" of DiFi and Rocky. I must say, I'm rather surprised the left blogosphere hasn't explored this angle too much.
Posted by iamcoyote at January 7, 2009 08:11 AMMy reactions to anything associating any bush to anything involving "intelligence" ranges from extreme disgust to uncontrollable laughter....
Posted by headxray at January 7, 2009 09:01 AMBush Intelligence is the new oxymoron example that is included in the Webster's dictionary. Oxford has said, it will wait until Bush's presidency is over to include.
So folks, you don't have a choice now. Bush and intelligence will be part together.
Thank you for echoing my comment that GHWB had no real intelligence experience. See Steve's post comments section.
I hardly ever toot my own horn but I'll make an exception here.
Posted by gmknobl at January 7, 2009 10:16 AMas long as bush/intelligence is an oxymoron I'm good with it....
Posted by headxray at January 7, 2009 10:37 AMfascinating that feinstein and rockefeller try to fight obama, right out of the gate. particularly how they fought bush, the past 8 years. or something...
Posted by Turkana at January 7, 2009 11:02 AMOT, but wow, guys! You sure seem to be studiously avoiding any and all mention of the biggest thing that is going on in the world right now.
What's up with that?!
Posted by Shirin at January 7, 2009 12:36 PMOT, but wow, guys! You sure seem to be studiously avoiding any and all mention of the biggest thing that is going on in the world right now.
What? Did the World Cup start?
Posted by snark at January 7, 2009 01:21 PMWhat? Did the World Cup start?
Naw, the Golden Globes are coming up this Sunday.
Posted by iamcoyote at January 7, 2009 01:25 PMThanks for taking it all so lightly. What's a thousand or so dead Arabs, anyway?
I guess the 70 dead members of the Samouni family whom the Israelis herded into a house and forced to stay there while they bombed it to rubble over their heads don't care anymore whether anyone cares.
And the 43 and counting dead from the Israeli massacres at the U.N. shelter are also beyond caring whether anyone cares.
Keep on laughing!
Posted by Shirin at January 7, 2009 01:40 PMShirin,
You come here and make a comment that implies that no one here cares about what is happening in Gaza because there aren't a bunch of posts about it. Yet you had absolutely nothing of any consequence to say about it either. It's terrible. It's a travesty. Israel is completely out of line. It's all been said here a thousand times. So take your insinuations that no one here cares about the Palestinians and go somewhere else.
Posted by snark at January 7, 2009 01:54 PMI gotta agree with snark. (except for the "get lost" part, cos I like Shirin and sympathize with the people whose lives have been ruined or ended)
But after generations of talk, here we are. One more voice condemning the actions of both sides won't stop fookin' men from trying to steal from other fookin' men and killing each other over it.
But if you want to read my one and only rant, I dropped one in the comments at my name link, on Milo's "interruption" post.
Posted by iamcoyote at January 7, 2009 02:05 PMSnark, I merely commented on the complete lack of any mention of the carnage in Gaza. You inserted the interpretation - or perhaps your conscience did?
For your information, I have friends - some of them very close friends - who may be dead, dying, maimed, wounded. At the very least, I know they are suffering horribly, especially the two couples I am closest to, each of whom has a two year old daughter. Can you imagine being trapped with no electricity, probably no water, by now no food, no communication, and no real way of knowing what is happening, what is about to happen, and how long it will all last.
Now imagine having your beloved two year old daughter going through all that with you. How do you explain to her that there is no food, and how do you live with the fact that you cannot even ease her hunger, let alone her fear.
OK, Snark, I'll get lost.
And both of you can just have a ball laughing it up.
OK,
Posted by Shirin at January 7, 2009 02:16 PMCrap, I just implied that snark didn't sympathize. I give up. Can't say anything without offending someone anymore. That's why no one wants to talk about it, Shirin. 'Cos this is where it ends up.
Posted by iamcoyote at January 7, 2009 02:21 PM...or perhaps your conscience did?
Thanks for reinforcing my point.
For your information, I have friends - some of them very close friends - who may be dead, dying, maimed, wounded. At the very least, I know they are suffering horribly, especially the two couples I am closest to, each of whom has a two year old daughter. Can you imagine being trapped with no electricity, probably no water, by now no food, no communication, and no real way of knowing what is happening, what is about to happen, and how long it will all last.
Now imagine having your beloved two year old daughter going through all that with you. How do you explain to her that there is no food, and how do you live with the fact that you cannot even ease her hunger, let alone her fear.
All that and nothing of any substance relative to the situation.
You can make me the bad guy if it makes you feel better. My conscience is just fine.
Posted by snark at January 7, 2009 02:26 PMSo, this is all about not making you guys feel bad? Alrighty then.
And by the way, Snark, if you think that the specifics of what specific individual Palestinians are going through is not of any substance relative to the situation, then we have nothing to talk about because for me it's all about human beings.
Once again, I did not say, suggest, or imply that no one here cared. As I said, it looked like a studied avoidance of the subject, and I wondered why. I was shocked and disappointed at the way you both laughed it off. That looked pretty heartless, and sure as hell left me with the impression that you don't give a flying fuck.
Snark, you can go to hell. Coyote, I'm hurt and disappointed.
Posted by Shirin at January 7, 2009 02:40 PMSnark, you can go to hell.
I see your empathy has it's limits. Didn't take long to find them.
"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."
Edmund Burke, 17th Century Philosopher
Snark, I am not sure why I should have any empathy toward you. You don't appear to be in any pain.
Posted by Shirin at January 7, 2009 02:47 PMCoyote, I'm hurt and disappointed.
And I'm sorry for being flippant, because I know you have friends and family there. But you did come in making assumptions - "studiously avoiding" - about the people here because no one is talking about what's happening in Gaza. You implied a deliberate avoidance of the subject. And then you tried to assign guilt by flinging dead and terrorized children at us. Maybe there's a reason people are studiously avoiding talking about it, Shirin. You imply we are the reason evil exists, because we're not doing anything. What the fuck are we supposed to do, I wonder? As I said, talking doesn't seem to have done shit for decades.
Posted by iamcoyote at January 7, 2009 03:00 PMShirin,
How do you know I'm not in any pain? You expressed a desire to see me to hell. You know nothing about my life. Yet you assume there is no pain in it. You are a hypocrite who can't even be honest with yourself that your first comment was intended to cast those here as unconcerned about the plight of the Palestinians. You could have made your comment about the suffering in Gaza and your friends and I'm sure plenty of people would have expressed their sympathy. But you didn't. You came here and more veiled accusations. And now I can go to hell. It was you who set the tone of this exchange. Not coyote and I. Here's another notable expression; As you sow, shall you reap.
Posted by snark at January 7, 2009 03:24 PMThere are a myriad of reports out there that GHWB was a CIA operative for most of his adult life. He has been linked to Zapata Oil Company that was active supporting the Bay of Pigs fiasco.
From "George Bush: The Unauthorized Biography" --- by Webster G. Tarpley & Anton Chaitkin: The review offered so far of George Bush's activities during the late 1950's and early 1960's is almost certainly incomplete in very important respects. There is good reason to believe that Bush was engaged in something more than just the oil business during those years. Starting about the time of the Bay of Pigs invasion in the spring of 1961, we have the first hints that Bush, in addition to working for Zapata Offshore, may also have been a participant in certain covert operations of the US intelligence community.
Such participation would certainly be coherent with George's role in the Prescott Bush, Skull and Bones, and Brown Brothers, Harriman networks. During the twentieth century, the Skull and Bones/Harriman circles have always maintained a sizable and often decisive presence inside the intelligence organizations of the State Department, the Treasury Department, the Office of Naval Intelligence, the Office of Strategic Services, and the Central Intelligence Agency. Indeed, the Harriman and related Anglophile financier factions of Wall Street have generally regarded those parts of the state apparatus dealing with intelligence and covert operations as their own very special property, property which had to be kept seeded with control networks in order to be effectively steered from above. For George Bush to interface with the intelligence community while ostensibly engaged in his business career would be coherent with that well-established pattern.
This article can be read in full at this link
Shirin, I know that there are few, if any here, who do not care deeply about what is happening.
Perhaps we need Steve or someone to blog about the situation, so we can have an open discussion. Milo, over at Low and Left has a post up now, and there are several responses. If you take the time to read them, you will find that we all are so frustrated with what is happening.
Believe me, not one death has gone unnoticed by any of us. As I posted earlier, when is enough, enough? Nothing, not one thing has been gained but the destruction of lives.
I know that you must be terrified about the safety of your friends. That I can relate to. Just know that we care, and we all wish we could stop this madness, and that includes Snark and Iamcoyote. Keep us informed, as much of the news is slanted.
Posted by Judith at January 7, 2009 04:48 PM"There are a myriad of reports out there that GHWB was a CIA operative for most of his adult life. He has been linked to Zapata Oil Company that was active supporting the Bay of Pigs fiasco."
Too bad someone didn't leak his name, as they did Valerie Wilson.
Posted by Judith at January 7, 2009 04:52 PMSo daddy bush was appointed the head of the CIA by a president that not one person voted for.
Makes perfect sense in bush world.
You know, like "Jeb in 2012!"
And Shirin,
You said;
Once again, I did not say, suggest, or imply that no one here cared.
No?
Your words in response to coyote and my responses to you;
I guess the 70 dead members of the Samouni family whom the Israelis herded into a house and forced to stay there while they bombed it to rubble over their heads don't care anymore whether anyone cares.
And the 43 and counting dead from the Israeli massacres at the U.N. shelter are also beyond caring whether anyone cares.
So how about a little honesty? Or is that too much to ask? It really does help things.
Wonder what Daddy thinks about someone in his son's Administration leaking an opertives name? Didn't he say once that "they should be shot?"
Posted by Judith at January 7, 2009 06:10 PMCoyote, I really do not have time to waste "defending" myself over something like this. Yes, given that there has been no mention at all on the front page of the situation in Gaza it looked to me as if there was some kind of avoidance going on here, it seemed odd, and I wondered why. I still wonder why.
Assign guilt? You and Snark are certainly being defensive, aren't you? Maybe I was shocked when you just laughed off the mass slaughter and other crimes as if it were not worth even thinking about let alone mentioning, and maybe I was just trying to bring it home to you that it is very real and very serious. And I admit that I was more than a little pissed off at your attitude, too, and maybe I still am.
As for that quote, again, why are you being so defensive? The truth behind that quote is one of the things that keeps me going when it all looks hopeless. If I do nothing, then I am consenting to evil by my inaction. Therefore I do what little I can - march, protest, speak out publicly and privately, keep myself as informed as possible, and work to inform as many other people as I can.
Since 2002 people have asked me why I wasted my time on the Iraqi thing. The reason is simple. Because if I cannot stop it, at least when it happens I will not have given consent to it by my inaction. So I waste my time, and I encourage others to waste theirs.
Posted by Shirin at January 7, 2009 07:17 PMYes, Snark, and that was after you both blew off the whole ongoing tragedy as some kind of joke.
To call your reaction offensive and cruel would not do it justice.
Posted by Shirin at January 7, 2009 07:19 PMShirin, I don't want you to go away. I value your voice. Write a post and I'll put it up at L&L.
Posted by iamcoyote at January 7, 2009 07:23 PMThank you, Judith. I appreciate your expression of concern. I wish there were more we all could do, but for now we all need to do what we can. Talk about it, read about it (but not in the U.S. MSM for sure!), march, protest, call your Congress members, write your congress members, donate money to help the U.N. help the victims, take up a collection - do SOMETHING. Doing something is always better than doing nothing.
And for god's sake don't insult the victims by flipping it off as if it were some kind of joke.
Posted by Shirin at January 7, 2009 07:26 PMWhy do the rocket firings continue? What use is it to gain signatures on agreements and see rockets fired within weeks of the signature? Sure Israel is making a disproportionate response, 4 Israeli's for 400 plus Palestinians. Stop firing the damn rockets. Wasting all these resources for arms when the people aren't taken care of. Get priorities right, feed, cloth, school, work for the people. Stop the rockets, dammit.
Arafat was offered 95% of what he wanted by President Clinton. No signature, no agreement, take the 95% now and try for the other 5% later. The few there keep messing it up for the people. And such a "great" response from those Iranian students, all 70,000 'volunteering' to suicide bomb Israeli's. What a stupid way to improve your people's lives.
Stop the rocket firings!
"Bush was credited with helping to restore the agency's morale." Leon may fit this bill the same way. He may just keep out of the way of the professionals and keep others from messing with them. Fab pick President-elect Obama. Liked the 'blue' tie too, hope lunch was great today, great company for sure.
Posted by peter at January 7, 2009 07:41 PMThere goes the neighborhood. The carrion eaters arrive.
do SOMETHING.
Shirin, just because we're in different stages of grief, and express them differently, doesn't mean we're not both grieving. And just because you can't see it, doesn't mean we here haven't provided what little support we can, where we can. No one was "laughing off mass murder," and it's not fair to accuse us of doing so. It may have been insensitive on my part to joke about your initial comment, but don't generalize it into a statement about how I feel about the horror in Gaza. But like Judith, I can empathize with the fear you must feel for your loved ones, and the frustration that their story isn't being told, so I mean it. Write up a post, and I'll put it up where I can. It's not much, but it's something.
Posted by iamcoyote at January 7, 2009 08:43 PMHey pants pissin pete..time for you and your troll trash buds to head over and work as shields for those rockets..your big chance to actually be useful.
Posted by headxray at January 7, 2009 08:55 PMIsrael has a right to defend itself from the terrorists.
The terrorists don't seem to want peace.
Posted by Thuy at January 7, 2009 10:18 PMSnark, I am not going to let you make this personal. Believe it or not, this is not about you. It is also not about me. It is about 1.5 million human beings who have been put into a cage from which they are not allowed to escape and then bombed and shot and bombed and shot and bombed and shot.
Did anyone here see the 1960's film, Hud? Remember the stunning scene in which they dug a huge, very deep pit from which there could be no escape, drove hundreds and hundreds of cattle into it so they were crammed in shoulder to shoulder, and then got out their rifles and shot and shot and shot and shot and shot and shot and shot until all the cattle were dead?
Sunday the Israelis ordered about 100 members of the Samouni family into a house together. On Monday morning they shelled the house again and again and again and again and again, killing an estimated 70 men, women, children, infants, and elderly people. "A handful of survivors, some wounded, others carrying dead or dying infants, made it on foot to Gaza's main north-south road before they were given lifts to hospital. Three small children were buried in Gaza City that afternoon." Mohammad Shaheen, a volunteer with the Palestinian Red Crescent (the branch of the Red Cross in predominantly Muslim countries) reported that they "had to leave about eight injured people behind because we could not get to them and it was no longer safe for us to stay."
Posted by Shirin at January 7, 2009 10:20 PMCoyote, please do not mistake me. I was deeply shocked and angry at the way you and Snark heartlessly blew off the situation in Gaza. I just couldn't believe you could be so callous. Maybe you were not thinking about mass murder or the 1.5 million people who have suffered horribly for two years for the crime of electing the "wrong" government, and who are now in the midst of a living hell right now, but you were.
That does not mean I believe you do not care. In fact, it is exactly because I expected you to care that your reaction was such a shock to me.
Posted by Shirin at January 7, 2009 10:27 PMThuy, I hate to break this to you, but the fact is that it is Israel that broke the peace, this time as it has in the overwhelming majority of the times when there has been a pause in violence.
On June 19 began a cease fire brokered by Egypt. For the next week Israel violated that cease fire multiple times each day, attacking fishermen on their boats, farmers in their fields, people collecting wood - that sort of thing. During that week there was one incident of fire from Islamic Jihad, who was not a party to the cease fire, one from the military wing of Fatah, the party of Mahmoud `Abbas (Israel's and the U.S. chosen guy), and one from unidentified Palestinians, maybe Hamas, maybe not.
After that, both sides kept the cease fire, and Hamas even did a very creditable job of reining in other militant groups such as Islamic Jihad. Until, on November 4, while the world's attention was riveted on the U.S. elections, Israel violated the cease fire with an unprovoked attack inside Gaza, killing six Palestinians. Hamas did not react. Israel violated the cease fire several more times, each time killing more people than the time before, including a number of children. After Israel had killed about 25 Palestinians, Hamas finally resumed the rockets.
And there is another very, very serious violation by Israel. One of the terms of the cease fire that Israel agreed to lift the siege that was strangling the life out of the people to the extent that human rights officials in the U.N. and elsewhere called it genocidal. Instead of lifting the siege during the cease fire, Israel tightened it.
Another inconvenient fact is that in 2008 until two days after Israel began bombing Gaza, the number of Israelis killed by rockets and other fire from Gaza was exactly zero. Number of Palestinians killed by Israelis in Gaza just during the six months of the cease fire? Around 25, including a significant number of children. I will leave it as an assignment for you to discover the number of Palestinians killed in Gaza from January 1, 2008 until Israel began bombing on December 27. And for extra credit you can give us the number of children killed during that time.
And to give you a bit more to think about, the sequence of events for this latest cease fire are reflective of a consistent pattern in which in the overwhelming majority of cases when there is a pause in the violence, it is Israel, not the "terrorists" that resumes the violence, and Israel usually makes unprovoked attacks in an escalating pattern until the Palestinians are forced to respond. And this has been Israel's documented pattern of behaviour since the earliest days of its existence.
So, given those documented and verifiable facts, would you care to revise your statement about who has the right to defend themselves and against whom?
Coyote, sorry, I did not proofread my last message to you well enough, so let me try this one more time:
Maybe you were not thinking about mass murder or the 1.5 million people who have suffered horribly for two years for the crime of electing the "wrong" government, and who are now in the midst of a living hell [in fact, I am sure you were not thinking of those things or you would not have blown it off in such a cruel way], but you WERE laughing off mass murder, even if you didn't realize it or intend it.
Posted by Shirin at January 7, 2009 11:59 PMOh, and Coyote, forget about grief. Grief is about the self. What is needed now is ACTION. One small action every day. Talk to one person, post one thing on the internet, learn one more fact about the situation, the background, the reality of what is going on, write one letter to the editor, make one call to your Congress member, attend one protest rally, send a contribution to the U.N. to aid the victims. Imagine the power if every good person did one small action against evil every day.
Just one thing every day. Fifteen minutes a day. that's all it takes to know you did not consent to evil.
Posted by Shirin at January 8, 2009 01:09 AMGood grief Shirin, tell your friends to stop firing the rockets. The WORLD will be on your side then. Even the Democratic leadersheep here will be on your side or the side of Palestinians then. Keep those rockets going and Obama, Pelosi, Reid, and the rest will not look favorably at the Palestinian cause. The conditions in Gaza are awful, amongst the worst in the world. Stop the rockets, dammit!
Posted by peter at January 8, 2009 04:06 AM"The poverty and the death and the despair among the Palestinians in Gaza moves me to tears. How can it not? Who can see pictures of children in a war zone or a slum street and not be angry and bewildered and driven to protest? And what is so appalling is that it is so unnecessary. For there can be peace and prosperity at the smallest of prices. The Palestinians need only say that they will allow Israel to exist in peace. They need only say this tiny thing, and mean it, and there is pretty much nothing they cannot have.
Yet they will not say it. And they will not mean it. For they do not want the Jews. Again and again - again and again - the Palestinians have been offered a nation state in a divided Palestine. And again and again they have turned the offer down, for it has always been more important to drive out the Jews than to have a Palestinian state. It is difficult sometimes to avoid the feeling that Hamas and Hezbollah don't want to kill Jews because they hate Israel. They hate Israel because they want to kill Jews.
There cannot be peace until this changes. For Israel will not rely on airy guarantees and international gestures to defend it. At its very core, it will not. It will lay down its arms when the Jews are safe, but it will not do it until they are." Timesonline
Stop the rockets!!!
Posted by peter at January 8, 2009 04:13 AMI see a troll hijacked the thread to something non-related to the original post shortly after my comment.
I thought there was a tougher comment policy in effect now? C'mon guys. This was a classic troll hijack. Comments unrelated to the post should be either moved to another section - except there is none here - or deleted if it continues. Issue a warning or two then ban.
If you don't like that a subject is not being covered, it's not correct to change the subject in the comments. This isn't a bulletin board. That's what you really want though. And it might make it easier to move discussions and posters that don't do what they should into a dead letter area while giving others the freedom to discuss what they want. Consider an associated BB a suggestion for future use.
Now, to address the off-topic post - most people do care about Israels ongoing immoral actions as well as Hamas' continuing terrorist activities. Since I was a kid I felt the best thing for the entire area was to seal it in a giant snow globe, shake it up to make them really mad, then let it sit for a while. After a few years you open it up and whoever is left alive gets to own the place as a new, single country entity with no reference allowed to past cultures or ethnicity. Impossible, I know, but I was a kid and it's still a good idea.
Now, promptly move further discussion about this topic elsewhere.
Posted by gmknobl at January 8, 2009 06:30 AMTalk to one person, post one thing on the internet, learn one more fact about the situation,
As I said before, Shirin, just because you can't see us doing it, or because someone here hasn't put up a post in a day or two doesn't mean people aren't doing these things.
but you WERE laughing off mass murder, even if you didn't realize it or intend it.
No, you interpreted our flippancy as "laughing off mass murder." We were reacting to your tone, as snark said, and your violation of the first rule of the blogs: You don't get to tell a blogger what they're going to blog about. You can make suggestions, you can hijack threads and talk about what you want, but you don't get to tell others what to care about. The reaction you're getting from people here is not because they're all for mass murder, it's because you're assuming everyone who isn't constantly screaming about the situation is supporting mass murder. It's supremely insulting and if your goal is to get more people to care, you're failing miserably. Do you want people to empathize, or do you want to browbeat guilt and shame into them, thus guaranteeing they'll avoid the subject? It's your decision. People here and anywhere will respond accordingly.
I don't want to continue a fight here over hurt feelings, it doesn't do anything but hurt more feelings and give wankers like petey something to jack off to. (when he's not jacking off to photos of dead children, that is.) Believe me, I just learned the hard way with my daughter, escalating the fear, panic and worry by delivering it in anger only makes the receiver of that anger respond in kind. It's hard to be calm when your friends are in immediate danger, but if you want people to pay attention, stop calling them monsters. They are more likely to listen and sympathize. Now, I'm going to get some work done here since my corporate boss is in town, and then I'll post your article at Low and Left because I believe it's important to put a human face on the humanitarian crisis and the article you sent does a great job of that. But if you want anyone to read it, I suggest you tone down the accusations, and remember what the goal is.
Now, promptly move further discussion about this topic elsewhere.
Fuck off. You don't get to tell people what to do any more than Shirin does.
Posted by iamcoyote at January 8, 2009 08:23 AMCoyote, I think what we have here is a failure to communicate, and I do not want to belabour it too much. However, I do feel a right to answer a few of the things you said.
I asked a question. I didn't tell anyone what to do, I asked a question. And when you blew it off in such a flippant way, I inferred that you were laughing it off. It was hard to infer anything else, and it DID feel like you didn't care - or more accurately that you didn't want to deal with it. But it felt like a slap in the face, and I was shocked, and I reacted in a less than constructive way. My bad.
But I NEVER called anyone a monster or implied that anyone was a monster - that is flat out putting words into my mouth, and really not fair at all.
As for telling people what to do, I did not. I told people some of the things I do and why I do them, and some of the things they COULD do. That is very different from telling people what to do. What I didn't say was that I never feel that I do enough. I am not sufficiently committed to give up my nice job, and my comfortable, warm, home, and my full cupboards and refrigerator, and my nice, stylish wardrobe to go there and actively help the people as many others do. So, I selfishly do what I can do without inconveniencing myself or sacrificing too much.
I honestly believe that if every person who cared did one small thing every day, or even every week it would make a significant difference. And that brings us back to that quote to which you and others took such umbrage, and which I believe with all my heart to be true.
Posted by Shirin at January 8, 2009 06:30 PMAs Brisa mentioned above, while the "cover story" was that George H W Bush had no connection with the CIA prior to his appointment there is evidence that he was in fact connected to the Agency going back to being recruited in Yale. His oil career kept putting him in places where the CIA wanted to penetrate (drilling platforms off Cuba which were used for mounting raids against Castro, Yugoslavia behind the Iron Curtain). There was an article by Anthony Kimmery in the Covert Action Information Bulletin in the nineties which speculated on his parallel career.
Also remember the minor scandal during the 1988 campaign when The Nation reported a declassified document from the JFK assassination wherein J. Edgar Hoover wrote about a report on the Cuban community's reactions from "Mr. George Bush of the CIA." Count George De Mohrenschildt, Oswald's father figure in the year before the assassination who was also suspected of being CIA, had Bush's personal home phone number in his address book, along with Bush's nickname "Poppy".
There is a new book, FAMILY OF SECRETS I believe the title is, which goes into this.
Posted by Bob In Pacifica at January 8, 2009 07:06 PM