SAN ANGELO, Texas — Fess Parker left his mark in San Angelo. In my youth my grand father would tell me stories of running with the likes of Fess Parker and his brother.
When you're a former Bush administration official whose public personage has been tainted by legal memos authorizing torture, but an internal investigation recently cleared you of everything but "poor judgment" -- where do you go to tell your side of the story to the public?
Fox News, of course. And that's exactly what former Bush administration attorney John Yoo did on Tuesday. The network was all too eager to allow him time to offer an unchallenged justification for the cruel and inhuman treatment of prisoners carried out at his recommendation.
One of the first items Yoo tackled: why simulated drowning is not torture.
Like him or hate him, Dr. Ron Paul doesn’t just talk a big game about fiscal conservatism, he lives it. In 2008, his congressional office returned $58,000 to the Treasury. In 2009, his office returned $90,000. Now, according to an official press release, Dr. Ron Paul’s congressional office has just paid back $100,000.
At a time when Wall St is running wild, the national debt is $14 trillion, and the federal government is running $1.4 trillion deficits, Dr. Ron Paul’s congressional office is running a surplus and paying back the American people. At a time when the federal government is paying record salaries and hiring record numbers as the rest of America suffers punishing unemployment, Dr. Ron Paul is operating his congressional office with a frugality that recognizes the current economic climate and respects the suffering of the American people.
Whether you like him or not, you have to respect the anti-war, fiscally conservative Republican Congressman. Unlike the vast majority of politicians, he doesn’t just talk the talk, he walks the walk. If President Obama claims that he is serious about reining in the runaway debt, perhaps he should install Dr. Ron Paul as the CEO of the bipartisan deficit commission. It appears he’s the only one in the federal government with the track record to speak with the highest degree of credibility.
