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I note that you still have not refuted any facts, introduced any relevant new ones nor otherwise addressed substance.

That's right. Nowhere have I claimed to have any facts. Nowhere have I claimed to be defending Grover Norquist. You think I'm trying to debate with you whether he's guilty or not. No. I'm just trying to make sure that I'm not being driven like a head of cattle into some pen. These are serious charges that are being made here.

I'm well aware of how unpopular it is on this forum not to convict people on the basis of accusations. Go into one of our many Kobe Bryant threads and suggest that we might want to have a trial before we hang that guy, and you'll get a ration you won't believe. This place is the home of "Guilty until proven innocent." And sometimes even that won't help. But I'm just one of those obstructionist types who wants to ask a few questions before we get out the rope. Don't take it personally.

Could this a personal feud? Some people say it is. How the hell do I know? You tell me it isn't. But I see personal animosity in your notes. I agree that doesn't mean you're wrong, but it does mean I need to add windage for that.

Is the Compendium of Facts hyperbolic and reminiscent of one of those "The Illuminati Rules the World" tracts? Maybe you don't want to hear this, but yes, it is. There's way too much stretching to reach for mud to throw. There is too much creepy organ music being played around what might be totally innocuous events. I read both of those things as signs that (a) somebody is trying to BS me, and (b) this is a hatchet job. If there are actual damning facts in there, I can't tell, because I don't know any facts. But I do recognize rhetorical trickery, and there is a fair amount. That's an alarm to me.

I'm not a big fan of credentialism. I don't know Frank Gaffney. I don't know you. You bring us this big pile of ugly stuff, and I know I'm supposed to just grab my torch and my pitchfork and go march on Grover Norquist.

And I may well do that. But not on your say-so. Not when it's clear that you don't like the guy, and that your claims are at least somewhat inflated -- and I can't tell by how much. Another generation and we'll have mob rule in this country, and then this will be a lot easier to do. But I will not go quietly into that good night. If the current activities are as you describe, then I will sign on. The current stuff is all you need anyway; the rest of it almost detracts from the case by giving the appearance of piling on.

You write: "Nowhere have I claimed to have any facts. Nowhere have I claimed to be defending Grover Norquist. ... I'm just trying to make sure that I'm not being driven like a head of cattle into some pen. "

Advice: pay more attention to facts than only organ music you hear. Frank and myself have given you plenty of facts, none really "innocuous" and none refuted in all of these posts -- quite to the contrary, I and others have knocked every rhetorical challenge or shading of the facts out of the park. The organ music you here is the home run organ.

So let go of your bovine fears; there is no pen awaiting you but your mind.

I don't do Kobe Bryant om Free Republic, I do national security in the real world. You pehaps will have to adjust you settings.

You further write "If there are actual damning facts in there, I can't tell, because I don't know any facts"

Wow. what can I say. "I don't know who Dr., but they are out to get me." Listen, relax. Have a pizza with Bob. Some fine shiraz. Go for a walk. Ruminate, from the latin ruminare.

"Nothing personal" you say, to someone in a town where your word is everything and accusations you level are fighting words, at least among honorable people. You are sure enough to accuse me of "trickery" , "stretching" and "inflating" (the same facts you admittedly can't measure because you "don't have any"). Proove any of this; that is to say disproove any of the facts that Gaffney, the cited sources and I have stipulated. Otherwise you are doing the same infantile leftist thing Grover does when he accuses uncomfortable fact bearers as "racists and bigots" never bothering to firs, or apparently even later, check their facts or his own. See the trouble not having "any facts" leads to?

I'm sorry, but not surprised, to hear you have a "pitchfork and torch" in the closet. I have a vest and mask, but that's an occupational hazard of a different sort than you are used to, I gather. But, I did appreciate the Dylan Thomas reference though. Of course he wrote that about a real fire, as you doubtless know. Which prompts me to enquire: Are you now feeling the heat, or just still ignoring the smoke? Final advice: get lower down anyway. I won't think any worse of you for it; might not even notice. My aim is high. nite nite