Stonewalling Quotes
NASA was trying to avoid embarrassment and obfuscated a great deal of the information around the Challenger disaster. The NASA Administration established a technical scientific staff to do the technical investigation and report to the commissioners. However Feynman, a great scientist and mathematician, did his own analyses and calculations and even data collection and discovered that his results did bot comport with that of NASA or the commission staff which generally accepted the NASA data and analysis. It turned out that Feynman was right and he was able to expose the truth that NASA management had been responsible for the disaster for not paying attention to the data and recommendations to postpone the launch that existed.
He was referring to the Vietnam war. The amount of lying and propaganda to the American people during the Vietnam war was extreme at the time but established a trend where the Department of Defense was less overt about lying but when they did so did it with more impunity.
At the time, the Congo was notorious for the huge number of rapes and the fact that rape was being used as a tool of intimidation by the government troops who the government claims are there to protect the public and also by the rebel forces who claim to be fighting for the people including the women they rape. In reality, the Congo is very rich in natural resources and the battles for control of the country are all really driven by the money to be made from the resources. The absurd denial by the ambassador has got to be one of the more hypocritical denials in diplomatic annals.
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The question produced this silly answer from a brilliant man and public critic of the ultra conservatives’ racism within his own party. He didn’t dare say “Yes” for if he did, the opponents of the Republcian party would quote his answer to great advantage. However most of the racists in America identify with the Republican party. Although this was the party of Lincoln and the major force against slavery and segregation in America, in 1964 the racists of America were furious at Lyndon Johnson and the liberal Democrats for passing the Civil Rights Bill of 1964 over their opposition and filibusters. The Republicans then adopted their “Southern Strategy” and welcomed the racists into the Republican Party. In a few short years, the highly racist“Solid South” had changed from solid Democratic to solid Republican. Politically the Southern Strategy was very successful in the 20th Century, but started to hurt Republicans in National Elections by the end of that century.
This is a great example of Presidential stonewalling of Congress. The legislative branch is often exercising its oversight role and demanding executive department documents which for various reasons the President does not want the Congress to see. In this case, almost all attorneys would have said that the Congress was entitled to see the documents. This set a precedent of de facto Executive Privilege for war time. However, Congress very often has used their power of demanding documents for political and ideological reasons and not for the better functioning of the government. In the Eisenhower administration the concept of Executive Privilege was formalized to protect President Eisenhower and officials in the Executive Branch from the abuses and excesses of Joseph P. McCarthy who was a fanatic, ideologue and an alcoholic at the same time. See {595900}.
His refusal to explain the reasons for and the circumstances of the arrests drew much criticism from Democrats and the press. This was the precedent that Presidents have used ever since to not reveal the grounds for arrest and the circumstances thereof. George W. Bush aides specifically cited this when they refused the details of many of the arrests after the 9-11 attack.
