Bear Left!
Bear Left!Bear Left's Believe It Or Not
Paul Corrigan
10 June 2001
Recently I was scrolling through back issues of Top Ten Conservative Idiots, from democraticunderground.com, and in amazement yelled out: "No way!" I had come upon the story that Ken Starr, in a speech at Arizona's Harding University, expressed regret at the way he handled the Clinton witch hunt. Somehow, I had missed this story when it first came out. Given the attention I pay to politics and the wire services, the major media must not have given this story much play. Top Ten Conservative Idiots was on the ball and reported the facts of the story as follows:
After being asked what he thought was the biggest obstacle in the Whitewater case, Starr replied "The growth of the independent counsel's power. The investigation far, far surpassed anything within the [original] jurisdictional grant." He then listed the names of people who were indicted in the scandal, and said: "It pains me. It pains me."
Ken Starr would have us believe that, like Inspector Javert, he has seen the evil of his overzealous prosecution and is feeling the pain of Bill Clinton and people like Susan McDougal. You can forget the suicide watch. Ken's pain has more to do with revisionist history than it does penance. We should not forget that Starr asked for the additional power he now laments. The man who taught a new generation about the evil inherent in a police state won't be doing any Ramsey Clark imitations.
I shook my head as I read about Ken Starr's comments. I was incredulous and told my cohort, Tim Francis-Wright, just how unbelievable I found Starr's epiphany. Tim responded: "It's not unbelievable." Of course, Tim was right. These statements are all too believable. I decided to take one day--June 6, 2001--and check for news stories about conservatives that are all too believable. The following news items made the list. The items were limited by space, not supply.
The Pentagon agency charged with rooting out fraud destroyed documents and substituted fakes to win a passing grade in an audit of its own operations. The incident occurred as work by the Pentagon's inspector general was about to be reviewed by auditors working for the Internal Revenue Service's inspector general. [Newsday.com]
The Bush administration's Federal Communications Commission fined a Colorado radio station $7,000 for broadcasting Eminem's rap song, "The Real Slim Shady." The album on which that song appears won three Grammys. In its ruling the FCC stated: "The edited version of the song contains unmistakable offensive sexual references in conjunction with sexual expletives that appear intended to pander and shock." Thousands of stations across the country have played the song and have not been fined. [New York Post]
"President Bush risks alienating his pro-family base with his outreach to Republican homosexual activists," says a new report published by the Culture and Family Institute, a division of Concerned Women for America. "God does not approve of Republican homosexuality any more than Democratic homosexuality." [WorldNetDaily.com]
PG&E, the California utility that filed for bankruptcy, asked the bankruptcy court's permission to hand out an additional $17.5 million in bonuses to executives, saying the move was necessary to prevent top talent from deserting the company. If the court approves the bonuses, some executives would get bonuses totaling as much as 100% of their base salaries. That's on top of $50 million in bonuses and raises awarded just before the utility filed for bankruptcy on April 6. [San Jose Mercury News and wire services]
Pedophiles must not be allowed to be scout leaders. [J. Parsek, Free Republic]
Nobel Prize winner Milton Friedman has written to President Bush urging him to reject the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development's so-called harmful tax competition initiative that was initiated by France and targets 35 international tax havens for the wealthy. According to Friedman: "Tax competition is a liberalizing force in the world economy, something which should be celebrated rather than persecuted. It forces governments to be more fiscally responsive lest they drive economic activity to lower-tax environments." [Financial Correspondent]
The Clinton administration is to blame for much of the waste, fraud and abuse in the federal government, according to a report released by Sen. Fred Thompson. The report found that staff reductions under President Clinton "actually detracted from the capacity of agencies to carry out essential functions and made them more vulnerable to fraud, waste and mismanagement." Mr. Thompson said the Clinton administration did not give financial management problems at Boston's $13.6 billion "Big Dig" highway project and the Department of Defense the attention they deserved. Republican Governors Bill Weld, Paul Cellucci (whom Bush chose for Ambassador to Canada) and Jane Swift have direct oversight of the "Big Dig" project. Former Republican Senator William Cohen was the Secretary of Defense in the Clinton Administration. The White House will reject the funding increases recommended by the IRS Oversight Board, an independent board created by Congress. [Washington Times]
Don Imus's new sports reporter, Sid Rosenberg, was fired after calling female tennis star Venus Williams an "animal" and saying she and sister Serena have a better shot at posing nude for National Geographic than Playboy. Imus's syndicated radio show, "Imus in the Morning," is simulcast on MSNBC and is known for its high profile political and media guests. [New York Post]
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