Just Say No

Nancy Reagan started a campaign in the 1980's as First Lady of "Just Say No." Just say no meant lots of things but most especially practicing abstinence and not engaging in smoking marijuana or other recreational (as well as narcotic) drugs.

Just say no can mean other things too. It can mean that the 4th Estate will say no in publishing a story without solid evidence. The National Enquirer, who is now being aided and abetted by Faux Noise, reported that John Edwards was seen in the Beverly Hills Hilton visiting Rielle Hunter, which they claim is his mistress and the mother of an illegitimate offspring. No evidence has linked them ever on this. And I don't think the onus is on Edwards to prove this. To me, it is Rielle Hunter's problem, since obviously she was paid to be in the tabloid and on ExtraTV, another gossip channel in which guests, sometimes of ill-repute, are paid to be on the show.

I find this odd that no pictures have appeared. The NE claims there is a video. I have a feeling this will be trumped up too. I might add that I find it odd that Edwards would have been driven anywhere in a foreign car; he prefers to ride in and owns American made cars.

The AP, NYT, and other newswires have not reported anything. It is rumored that the LAT Blog editor has ordered his blog columnists not to blog about it either. For these reasons, the News-Record of Greensboro, which hasn't always been kind to John Edwards, has chosen not to report it either since there is no credible evidence such as photos, or a credible witness either, other than some security guard who didn't recognize Edwards at first either until he was hounded and likely goaded into a statement after being shown a picture of Edwards. If he didn't recognize Edwards right away, seems to me this is all balderdash.

This is now between John and Elizabeth to sort out. It is not for me to judge him on what happened without evidence. I give John the benefit of the doubt. I do not give Rielle Hunter that same benefit because this is twice this has story has occurred in 8 months and I wonder if she is a spurned person because she came on to him and he said no, that they are friends (if that strong of a relationship). If indeed John came to visit her for whatever reason, she should have said no (or her surrogates thereof) to The National Enquirer and ExtraTV. It smells to me that this trap of paparazzi of only the National Enquirer seemed to know about a visit--and tons of TV journalists within 2 doors down having a party.

And the News-Record agrees--this is not a credible story. They said no.

Flag for Molly Ivins, A True Texas Progressive

On the eve of two fine feminists, including Amanda Marcotte, who lives in Austin, hired by the Edwards campaign, Molly Ivins passed away after a long battle with cancer.

I will write more about this since I've been following Molly's writing for a long time.

She's with her sister Ann Richards.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/013107U.shtml

and from the Texas Observer:

I have a grandly dramatic vision of myself stalking through the canyons of the Big Apple in the rain and cold, dreaming about driving with the soft night air of East Texas rushing on my face while Willie Nelson sings softly on the radio, or about blasting through the Panhandle under a fierce sun and pale blue sky….I’ll remember, I’ll remember…sunsets, rivers, hills, plains, the Gulf, woods, a thousand beers in a thousand joints, and sunshine and laughter. And people. Mostly I’ll remember people.

There is one thing, an important thing, I have to tell you before I go. What I’m going to tell you is more than a fact. It is a Truth. I have spent six years checking it out, and I know it to be true. The people who subscribe to The Texas Observer are good people. In fact, you’re the best people in this state. I don’t care if you think that’s pretentious or sentimental—it’s just true.

If I got to naming you, I would never stop, so I won’t. But please believe me that all of you whom I know and many of you whom I know only by letter are in my mind as I write this—even if I do forget your names half the time. Always excepting, of course, the turkey who sends me hate mail after my annual gun-control editorial. Turkey, turkey, turkey.

I wanted to call this “The Long Goodbye” but Kaye won’t let me. She wanted to call it “Ivins Indulges in Horrible Fit of Sentimentality.”

I love you. Good-bye my friends.