Wendelin Van Draanen Quotes

Amazingly the newspaper castigated Cunningham for making obscene gestures and saying “Fuck You” to constituents who would tell the Congressman that there was too much Defense spending. The reason this was amazing is that the San Diego Union supported Cunningham every single time he ran for election and never wrote a word about his illegally swinging contracts to firms. He had been taking bribes all along and when the Federal judge sentenced him to jail called him the ‘most corrupt congressman in American History.’

This view is the direct opposite of most traditional concepts of military and administrative discipline and/or correction of people’s behavior.

Most of the Republicans in the Senate, using the filibuster, blocked legislation making schools and streets safer by expanding the requirement for gun checking to keep mentally ill people and violent criminals from purchasing a gun. The legislation had been crafted by Republican and Democratic Senators and was supported by 90 percent of Americans including 80 percent of Republicans and the majority of hunters and gun owners. This was one of the rare instances where public opinion did not matter at all to the Congress, and while a majority of the Senators supported the legislation a significant minority was more in fear of the NRA and the Gun lobby than they were of the voters. To the Republican minority, the possibility of a mentally deranged, violent, convicted felon, should be allowed to buy a military style assault rifle or any other weapon at a gun show without anyone bothering to check his background was less desirable than requiring gun sellers to spend 3-5 minutes to check out the potential buyer.

It is onerous for most governments to have one of their secret programs exposed by the press. But what is much worse for the government is the exposure of a secret program whose legality is not on a firm foundation.