Comments on: Come Saturday Morning: Things Found En Route To Looking Up Other Things

By: MetalMonkey

MetalMonkey — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 22:23:31 +0000

great link. thanks.

By: cinnamonape

cinnamonape — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 20:27:20 +0000

OT….but apparently India and Pakistan almost went to war after the Mumbai attacks because of a belligerent phone call…that turned out to be a prank.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories.....1908.shtml

By: cinnamonape

cinnamonape — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 19:56:46 +0000

Anyone catch his Presidential Radio Address this morning. Bush was back defending his decision to invade Iraq and claiming he won the war there. But what struck me is that his voice had dropped about two octaves. It almost didn’t sound like Bush giving the speech. Have to think that something is up with his health.

By: Sara

Sara — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 18:58:49 +0000

“IIRC Hoover hated the Chenaults. Clare, the founder of the Flying Tigers, hated Hoover. Hoover spied on and wiretapped whoever he wanted to, warrants be damned. I don’t remember what happened to his personal files, where he kept all the dirt on people he considered enemies, which was just about everybody in DC.”

According to Curt Gentry, “J.Edgar Hoover: The Man and his Secrets” all the files in his and has secretary, Helen Gandy’s office, were taken away the day he died to Hoover’s home, and in the following weeks they were sorted and mostly destroyed. Hoover’s pal, Tolsen supervised the removal of the files, and they were out of FBI HQ by 11AM the day Hoover died. Tolsen was deputy director, and after he fulfilled Hoover’s intent that his confidential files never see the light of day, he retired at about noon the day Hoover died.

One of Nixon’s reasons for appointing L. Patrick Gray as acting director was that he wanted Gray to get the files for the White House, but Tolsen and Gandy beat him to it, and when Gray arrived several days later, they were long gone. Gray was not an expert on the FBI filing system, didn’t know how things were coded in Hoover’s office, so when he asked for files, they gave him junk.

Apparently Tolsen’s apartment and Hoover’s house was stacked high with files after their removal, and over a number of weeks they read them, sorted them, and destroyed most of the contents.

By: Sara

Sara — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 18:37:27 +0000

“Well, let’s not forget that Alberto Gonzales told us all that Washington and Lincoln used electronic surveillance and wiretapping too.

Damn founding snoopers.

-G”

Actually Lincoln did wiretap. There was some smart rewiring of the Confederate Telegraph Lines that went on from time to time, allowing the Union to “read” some of what was being reported to Richmond.

By: siri

siri — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 18:20:42 +0000

a friend and fellow patriot stresses the same exact thing when talk of leaving to Canada ever comes into conversation. He reminds everyone continually that things are NO BETTER up there and we have to stay here and stand our ground, fight here and now. There’s no place better, really, and this country needs all hands on deck NOW.
i think it’s wise to keep in mind that we are fighting not only previous administrative abuses, but our current congress who is complicit at best in many of these travesties against the Constitution.
Congress is as much to blame for everything Bu$hCo did as the crime family is itself!

By: bobschacht

bobschacht — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 17:46:38 +0000

PW,
Thanks for this history lesson.

Our Constitution expresses a Vision that we must always strive for, no matter how much we wander.

Bob in HI

By: brodie

brodie — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 17:43:44 +0000

Nah, Hoover was usually only tapping outspoken blacks and the antiwar types — commie-infiltrated student protesters, hippies, weirdos and beardos — and those in high office thought by him or Lyndon to be insufficiently loyal to LBJ’s VN policy.

Edgar also was no dummy. He wouldn’t have acted on his own re tapping Chennault or any other high-profile figure, and would have sought a green light from the WH. Here, the record indicates that LBJ instructed Hoover to tap Chennault.

LBJ, interestingly, also had the FBI tap the phones of his own vice president, Hubert Humphrey, in 1968 — someone Lyndon thought was about to embarrass him politically with a sudden statement calling for a negotiated settlement/withdrawal from VN. Alas, Hubert didn’t have the cojones to take such a step …

By: Hugh

Hugh — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 17:40:09 +0000

LOL You’re right the goat would have done a better job.

By: PJEvans

PJEvans — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 17:29:32 +0000

Probably the goat would kicked it better, too. I think Shrub needs the leaders to find the field, any more, he’s so plastered all the time.
(Must be the Army-Navy game; they were hyping it last weekend as ‘America’s game’. Like h*ll.)