The Return: A Book for Frances about Life and Death
             Preface
            Back Cover
      You're in Charge: A Guide to Becoming Your Own Therapist
            Introduction: The Art of Self Observation
             On Dreaming
            Foreign Editions
   Since the New Deal: An Annotated Chronology of the Events That Have Changed the United States
             The C.I.A. (excerpt)
             Origins of the Cold War (excerpt)
             Some Quotations that Demonstrate the Underlying Philosophy Since the New Deal

 
      Afghanistan, "Terrorism," and Blowback   About Anthrax
     Some Thoughts on 9-11-2001

Three Cheers for Salon Magazine!

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b) the public (except for the members of the religious right, of course) doesn’t give a pig’s eye whether Monica won her “presidential kneepads” or not. It seems that we really DID have a sexual revolution in this country.

3. The office of independent counsel has become a fourth branch of government never intended by the authors of the Constitution. It’s got to go. Or else be radically reformed to prevent the flagrant and partisan abuse of power so far demonstrated by Kenneth Starr.

4. We had an independent counsel a few years ago who very fairly and conscientiously investigated a truly serious governmental abuse of power--- of the kind that the law was written to correct after Watergate. I’m referring, of course, to Lawrence E. Walsh whose investigation of the Iran-Contra conspiracy and cover-up was sabotaged. The felony convictions of Oliver North and John Poindexter were overturned on appeal beause of the “tainted” testimony given to the competing congressional committee. Lame-duck George Bush then pardoned indicted Caspar Weinberger and the already-convicted four: Elliott Abrams, Alan Fiers, Clair George, and Robert McFarlane. Read Walsh’s book, Firewall (1997), for the sorry details, especially the part played by Bob Dole.

5. I’m not an advocate of cover-ups. Not at all. However, there are distinctions. I find it hard to include a president’s covering up an order to the CIA to get the FBI to call off the Watergate investigation, illegal contributions, payoff of “hush money” to potentially damaging witnesses, orders to the “Plumbers” for illegal break-ins,--- with that of a president attempting to cover up a (possible) extra-marital affair. See Stanley I. Kutler’s Abuse of Power (1997), which contains the latest release of Nixon tapes and reveals him as even more corrupt than we knew at the time.

Enough for now, but probably more to come later!

March 7, 1998

1. Someone please give Kenneth Starr a copy of the Constitution before he has trampled the Bill of Rights beyond recognition! So far he has:

tried to turn the clock back to 1798 by compelling Sidney Blumenthal to testify about his contacts with the press. Criticism of a federal official's conduct, by the press or by private citizen, is not a crime, Mr. Starr. There is such a thing as the right to free speech. The Jeffersonian Democrats threw out the Sedition Act in 1800. That attempt to overturn the First Amendment did not prevail.
sent a wired Linda Tripp to interview her "friend" Monica Lewinsky.
allowed his assistants to harass Monica for nine hours without counsel, threatening her with a long jail term for "perjury" if she did not accede to their request to perform a sting operation on Clinton.
sent another woman, Susan McDougal, to jail for nearly two years for her refusal to give false testimony that would be damaging to Clinton.
forced Marcia Lewis, Monica's mother, to testify before the grand jury and reveal her daughter's confidences.
2. If Kenneth Starr is truly interested in indicting someone for perjury, he need look no further than Paula Jones who has added an interesting bit to her sworn deposition in the civil case. Where, in her original statement, she had immediately fled from the hotel room after Governor Clinton allegedly dropped his pants and underpants and made his shocking request,--- now she has added that he rushed up behind her and put his hand on the door to stop her from leaving--- "He confined me for a moment," saying, "You're a smart girl, let's keep this between ourselves." Clinton must be remarkably agile to have gotten his pants up in time to beat her to the door, or else he's had a lot of practice in potato-sack racing. His legal team must be salivating over the possibilities in this testimony.

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© Janette Rainwater 1997-2004

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