I walked up to Mr. Johnson & by way of introducing myself, I stated my username.
Now this guy is either very good at deception or he has a very good memory. Before I could mention The BooMan Tribune, which was to be my next intro line, he said “Hey, How are you?” as if he recognized me from here at the tribune. So he remembered me from my comments or he knows how to speak to people. I mentioned that he had said, if Fred Thompson ever announces his candidacy, that he wanted someone to ask him how he liked representing the treason faction of the republican party. So now that he`s announced, what was he [Mr. Johnson] going to do about it. His reply gave me more confidence in the ultimite survival of this country as I always envisioned it to be, not because of the content of it, but because of his confident & determined manner in which he gave it.
He told me though, that there were plenty of things they were doing & working on & that the process of restoring sanity here, would not waver.
The moderator, Ian Masters, a very wellspoken & seemingly knowledgeable man, started his talk by way of announcing how the evening was to progress, who would be speaking & a little about them. As the evening progressed I could see that Ian Masters, was more than a moderator, but a person that shared the same thoughts, fears, & feelings about the state of affairs , as the people who came to hear the speakers.
Mr. Ray McGovern sits in front of me & since we had just seen him on a screen showing his “nerve’ when he shot down Don Rumsfeld`s claim to never having said he knew where Saddam`s WMD`s were, by calling him a liar, I had to congratulate him thank him for his 27 years in the service to this country, & his ongoing efforts to bring forward & educate as many people as possible to the facts that some people already know but need to be reinforced & to those who don`t yet know that they`ve been bent over .
The moderator Ian Masters had given us a brief history of Mr. McGovern`s career, & one of the things that he had done was to present, to the POTUS, by hand, the Presidential Daily Briefing.
[” We never could have imagined” Condi Rice.]
One of the things I noticed about Mr. McGovern was that he was just like your dad, or your friend. There was no pretention, it was true. Whatever he was saying, it was very easy to trust he was speaking the truth, & you could see it better when listening to him voice his aprehension, about even begining to speak out.
After being called a “Wuss”[ by his friends,& in humor] for not immediately speaking out & being pointed to Cindy Shehan & Rachel Corrie who weren`t afraid, he decided to go for broke & called the liar [Rumsfeld] a liar. He then mentioned how there were “Raging Grannies” out there, now where were the raging grampas. The lady in front of me started whooping & clapping, as if she also wanted to know where they were. I tapped her on the shoulder & said, “Right behind you, lady”
Mr Johnson, explained how the people you grow up with in a career, is much the same as a group that gravitate towards a like minded group in college. Those connections are reinforced through time & to this day they remain a very tight group. There are some very very “POed” people who will not let Valerie Plame`s outing & her husband`s, Mr. Wilson, name be treated in the manner in which they have. He stated that there were assets, more than just Valerie Plame, that were lost due to the actions of people like Libby, & those who were involved in her outing.
They have done “Great Harm” to this country, he said.
He was not a happy man, when he was talking about that. I would not want to be the subject of his conviction to fix this wrong.
A few more points, for whatever it means.
At the question period, about 30 people lined up for questions. Jeebus,
I know we were in Venice Ca. but when the conspiracy people started talking or getting a little out there, a lot of people left. Then there were others, one, who wanted to explain his own personal “Deja Vu” with many contorted hand motions. It reminded me of Led Zeppelin, you know, “Ramble On”.
Then an impaired person, remember, we`re in Venice, tried to mumble about something most people couldn`t hear, so Larry said, “I`ll take that one.That`s an easy question, uh! no, wait [ it wasn`t], I`ll give you an easy answer.” More questions on whether we should worry about martial law.
Mr. johnson sugested that there were legal steps that should be taken & that the rule of law should be followed.
Invasion of Iran: Mr. McGovern, is of the opinion that the military has stopped the presidents eagerness to do so by presenting him with a “Day After” scenario, in which he was convinced it was not a good idea, but one can`t watch bush all the time & if cheney got his mitts in that oven, all bets were off. He did go on to explain the utter idiocy of attacking Iran by explaining the “Day After” briefing which the president was given. Interestingly, he linked how the lobby for Israel who have been cheering an attack on Iran for a long time, would be a major loser if it did come about.
Then in the question period, a lady stood up & questioned why he was so quick to mention Israel, but had not mentioned “oil”.
Another lady got up & sorta tried to maybe imply that since they were both CIA insiders tthat they had some kind of agenda that they were involved with at this very moment to pull more wool over “OUR” eyes.
A guy over on my side of the room said to a rude lady next to me, “I don`t trust that guy on the right”. He was speaking of Mr Johnson.
A few minutes later, he started talking over me again to the same lady. I told him it was very rude to interrupt my listening, they`re answering questions & interrupting the poeple who came to ask the questions.
And don`t trust the guy on the left, that`s me on your left buddy.
A few other people started chiming in about not learning anything new bla bla. The moderator Ian Masters tells the people it`s not cool to be insulting “Guests” . Meeting is pretty much over. I went & thanked Mr.Johnson who was surrounded by people with more questions, & also MR. McGovern who also had a crowd around him. I have to also acknowledge a female comedienne who obviously had not preformed in a church before.
At the entrance to the hall in the lobby I noticed that “Code Pink” was being very helpful also.
I like those Code Pink ladies. I met a whole bunch of them once, but they probably thought I was just a run of the mill nut.
I wish I could tell them, I`m not a run of the mill nut, but a genuine hand forged one.
Goodnight.
I`ll post a few pics in the first comment.
