Just FYI on a couple of fronts

[scarlettina]

My thoughts and prayers are with the people of Japan and my friends in Hawaii. The Earth is an angry, powerful mother. Bad enough the flooding and quake damage in Japan; I hope that nuclear power plant is gotten under control.

The West Coast of the U.S. is under a tsunami advisory and parts of the Washington state coast have been evacuated as a precautionary measure. Seattle is too far inland for a tsunami to be a threat to the city. The Olympic Peninsula and the Straights of Juan de Fuca act as buffers and will diffuse residual energy before any tsunami effects might reach us. I consider us fortunate. On the other hand, more activity like this on the Ring of Fire makes me nervous. But we can't really do anything about that.

Representative King, just so you know: Your hearings are an embarrassment to this nation. They are divisive, expensive, and they won't make this country any safer. All they are doing is putting your bigotry on public record. We've been here before, but I guess you haven't learned anything about some guy named Joe McCarthy. We'll say your name and his in one breath someday, probably this afternoon.

On a completely different subject, I won't be doing the census meme currently making the rounds. It would require more research than I feel like doing right now and I just don't feel like doing that kind of looking back. Right now, I'm trying to do a lot of looking forward.

I've made an appointment to get my computer looked at tomorrow. I'll be doing a major clean-up and back-up tonight.

Comments

[daveon.livejournal.com]

That the utter tosser was a big IRA sympathizer and doesn't see the hypocrisy of his position basically sums it all up.

[varina8.livejournal.com]

I was just about to post the same thing.

[bedii.livejournal.com]

We've been here before, but I guess you haven't learned anything about some guy named Joe McCarthy.

Oh, he's heard of him alright: he's just focused on the period before April, 1954 and is banking on his ability to not call anyone like Joseph Welch, or that he can handle himself better than McCarthy did. Which is an interesting question in and of itself.

Those hearings were historically interesting for a couple of reasons beyond the obvious. ABC was a brand new network, and they decided to carry the hearings gavel-to-gavel. There's been some debate over that: was it because they'd save by not having to produce daytime programming for the duration of the hearings, or in an attempt to use the hearings as a tool to push their network into the spotlight, or was it because Lyndon Johnson leaned on them to cover the hearings. It's clear from those who were affiliated with Johnson at the time that Johnson loathed the man, but that he felt that he couldn't do anything because those against McCarthy "didn't have the votes." It's been suggested that Johnson pushed ABC because he was sure that McCarthy would screw himself over if he was front and center rather than clips on the nightly news, and that would give him the votes to work with.

I think Rep. King needs a lot more exposure in front of non-partisan media. I think he's bone, stick, and stone stupid enough to get himself thrown out of office if there's enough attention focused on him.

[claireeddy.livejournal.com]

Your fun fact for the day? Mr. King as a young 'un had dealings with McCarthy...and early in his career worked at Roy Cohn's law firm.

It's nice to see some traditions run true, eh?

--claire (who is disgusted this guy comes from my state)