“Outside Views”

(from)Milwaukee Journal Sentinal, Dec. 10

(republished to the Spokesman-Review “Outside Views”) U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, an intrepid prosecutor, made a name by securing a conviction of I. Lewish “Scooter” Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff, in the Plamegate scandal.  This arrest shows that Fitzgerald’s reputation as a no-nonsense prosecutor with a commitment to combating public corruption is well-deserved.  He also successfully prosecuted Blagojevich’s predecessor, GOP Gov. George Ryan, on influence-peddling charges.

Fitzgerald said he ordered the arrest to stop what he described as a “political corruption crime spree.”

The complaint offers ample evidence of this, including the charge that Blagojevich threatened to withold state assistance to the Tribune Co., owner of the Chicago Tribune, in the sale of Wrigley Field unless certain members of the paper’s editorial board were fired. The company filed for bankruptcy protection last Monday.

If Tribune management was playing ball with Blagojevich, it will be a black mark on the record of Sam Zell, the real estate magnate who has owned the newspaper for the past year.  But it seems clear that the newspaper’s editorial board pulled no punches.  The board suggested that the Legislature investigate impeaching Blagojevich over an unrelated matter in September, one of several editorials that prosecutors say enraged the governor.

It is clear from this example, and other “Outside Views” the Spokesman-Review editorial board published, that various newspapers were prepared to nail Gov. Blago with the corruption that he had undeniably engaged in and did not demand an accounting from President elect (what did he know and when did he know it) Barack H. Obama as CNN for the past week has been demanding that he do.  Simply because the various newspapers, unlike CNN, don’t play games of “guilt by association.”  Gov. Blago was the fellow who engaged in the crime, therefore he is the one who needs to be held to account.

Here is another remarkable element that came out of CNN and most specifically, from the mouth of Wolf Blitzer.  Blitzer of “The Situation Room” and “Late Edition” wondered who it was that blew the whistle on Gov. Blago that led to his being investigated by Fitzgerald at all.  Well now, maybe Blitzer need look no further than his compatriots in the news media.  If a Gov.s actions become a matter of public record and prove to be sufficiently bad enough for an editorial board to begin demanding an impeachment, then I would certainly suggest that U.S. Attorneys’ and/or their staff, can read the newspapers and get interested in investigating what did Blago do and when did he do it?  In this case, where there was editorial smoke, there was indeed fire.  Why couldn’t Blitzer see the obvious?

The COLB conspiracy

It has come to my attention whether it is a thread on http://www.spokesmanreview.com/blogs/opinion/ or http://www.spokesmanreview.com/blogs/hbo/ where a discussion has been generated as to whether President elect Barack H. Obama is even American with questions raised about his birth certificate and its authenticity.  A matter of opinion presented links to newspapers such as the Chicago Tribune that has so far refuted the claims of a fake or forged Certificate of live birth.  And Slate ran a series of links about the various new lefty groups who don’t want to believe that Obama does have a legitimate COLB and even further pursue lawsuits insisting on finding out what is already obvious and public knowledge.  As for those who post to the above-mentioned blogs, they whine that if Obama would just provide the “proof.”  Hey, I believe he did.  And because he did, they now whine about how it was “faked.”  The fakery debunked and they go in pursuit of a fairy tale of how he was actually born in Kenya.  Even if that were indeed so, his mother is American.  I fail to find how Obama would be less American given the fact that his mother was born in this country.

There was never any question about McCain’s American status even though it was proven that he was born in another country, in this case, Panama.  You are born anywhere in the world to people who are citizens of the U.S., you are automatically a citizen of the U.S.  That’s the law.  Or there would be real problems for children of American diplomats serving in other countries.  Just as it was also questioned, how about people in the Armed Services serving as well in other countries, women  who are members of the Army, Navy, Air Force, or Marines who get pregnant should immediately return stateside to deliver?  Well now, perhaps this issue would not be raised if both of Obama’s parents had been U.S. born.  At the same time, perhaps Ms. Obama would not have given her son this heartburn if she hadn’t taken him to Indonesia and ultimately married yet another dadblasted furriner.  But Ms. Obama had ultimately died before she was to know that her son would ultimately run for the presidency.  Were any of these new lefties aware of the fact that many Americans do marry foreigners?  Some Americans have gone on to live in foreign nations with their spouses and renounced American citizenship altogether.  Or retained dual citizenship.  In Obama’s case, Mom Obama did travel with him out of country, did marry and lived with an Indonesian native.  But once that marriage was over with, returned with her son state side, put him in the primary care of her parents and Barack Obama basically grew up in the actual place of his birth, Hawaii.  According to Chicago Tribune and Slate, the only time Mom took her son to a foreign country, was to Indonesia.  There was no record anywhere that Mom took her son to Kenya, or traveled at any time to Kenya to give birth there.  Indeed, according to both sources, even after Obama was born in Hawaii, after Obama sr had left his wife and infant son, he was still stateside for years afterwards.  Which would certainly argue that Mom would have no incentive to travel to Kenya or to give birth to Barack in that African nation.  Not when dad was still around to see his son periodically if that was his choice.  So, why are there still arguments, lawsuits?  Only the Gods know.