While I Love the Smell of Jet Fuel in the Morning....

I hate the smell of hipocracy at any time of the day (or night, for the literalists of the world). Once again, I feel as though I'm in some strange, parallel dimension. When the President's press secretary want to encourage an organization, that has admitted they were wrong, to do something, since this falls into the realm of "Foriegn relations," some "journalist" (quotation marks for I question the objectivity of the man who was in the press conference and allowed to ask questions. Those are supposed to be jounalists, reporting both sides), blasts Scott McClellen with "With respect, who made you the editor of Newsweek? Do you think it's appropriate for you, at that podium, speaking with the authority of the President of the United States, to tell an American magazine what they should print?" For starters, lets just look at the reality of the "journalists" and the editors (no qutations, for this is their function) when something happens in a not so positive way with the Federal Government. They have no reservations of filling the editorial pages, as well as adding "comments" to "news" reports in every paper, saying how they think the President should have handled things. We accept this, it's good for us in an open society. Now, in contrast to the current events of someone from the Presidents staff making recommendations in the arean of foriegn policy, to a periodical whose purpose is to be a news document, I thnk that's fair. Scott McClellen, no doubt, has access to many of the conversations so he can prepare relsease, therefore, he is in the company of those elected, appointed and confirmed people who represent the will of the American populace, and in this case, in matters of foreign policy. I'd submit that the news periodical doesn't have near the foreign experience on thier staff as the President has at his command (and this goes for any administration), so it most likely is wise council. Scott did not threaten, nor demand. Encouraged is the same type of word the liberals use when they discuss "encouraging" the youth to have more self-esteem. When it is used in this context, it's viewed as a positive word. When the staff of George Bush uses it, it become some sort of government dictate, superceeding the Constitution, particularly the 1st Amendment. So, to the hipocrites in the press, I say chill out. First off, you got it wrong and you even admitted it, second off, you got free advice on how to fix it from people in the know, but don't forget "you" regularly tell all levels of elected and paid governmental people how to do their job. Get over it...and try to make amends, just as you demand of the President on a regular basis. "It's always dangerous to set a precedent, because you never know when you'll have to live by it." - Me, sometime in 1988 after finishing Naval War College, for that was the lesson I toook away from the history of the world and human conflict. /rant off