Happy trails to you and yours travels, says a sincere albeit jealous ‘brat. ;~)

So, my trip for the summer of 1964 was to the 6th National Boy Scout Jamboree in Valley Forge, PA. My most vivid memory of this event was the night I sat on a hill with 50,000 of my fellow Scouts, each with a candle which we all lit on cue while the helicopter carrying President Johnson was on its way. I imagine seeing our candles from the air was an impressive sight.

The helicopter hovered and landed behind the stage, and when LBJ emerged, everyone around me leaped to their feet and gave him the most amazing ovation I’ve heard at any gathering, before or since. Only seven months had passed since Kennedy’s assassination, and American involvement in the Vietnam War wasn’t yet in high gear. His popularity was at its peak.

He gave his speech and was in his chopper and gone within a few minutes. I’ll never forget his presence at the podium, the timbre of his voice and his forceful delivery, but until searching online tonight and finding the text of his remarks, I remembered nothing of what he said. On reading it, I have to say it was a nicely crafted little speech, tailored to instill pride and purpose in our impressionable young minds. For those interested, the text may be found here:
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu…..?pid=26391

Teddy, thanks for your post. Have a good summer.

RP

Felix, you come down from the tree line anytime you want and take advantage of some hammock time here in the trees lining the shore.

Will do!

continuing analysis of second topic:

para 6 is historical scene setting, neutral in tone.

para 7 has no less than three body blows to Cheney in it. The first: “This previously unreported meeting sheds light on the origins of one of the Bush administration’s most controversial claims. “
The second: “The Justice Department … [said the law] “prohibits only the worst forms of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment” and therefore permits many others.”.
The third: “[signed by] Jay S. Bybee, [opinion prohibited only torture] “equivalent in intensity” to the pain of “organ failure ….. or even death.”".

MSM Spin: “In a secret meeting….lawyers associated with Cheney said US law permits torture…to the point of death.”

FN Spin: “Cheny set up a clandestine meeting to trick the White House into allowing rogue interrogators to torture people almost to death.”

I haven’t read those memos in about two years, but it seemed to me that they were a sophomoric attempt to set up a good-faith defense for both the actual torturers and their chain of command. The torturers could say that they were operating in good faith on assurances from their superiors that what they were doing was not illegal. So could their superiors up to the President, who could claim that he was operating on good faith on the advice of counsel. (

Visibly, that’s a minor variant of the long-discredited Nuremberg defense. But John McCain worked very hard to get it into law both in his Anti-torture legislation and in the Military Commissions Act, which refers back to McCains anti-torture bill.

IMHO, when push comes to shove the mere existence of these memos will prove that these people weren’t operating in good faith.

TexB @ 288

re: summer —– Someone invite me somewhere for a weekend or so.

TexB, if you’re still up i sent a facebook message

Oooh Oooohhh. Let me go look.