***"Taliban" Sam Donaldson Shamed Himself Again Today***

Stardate: 0110.14

[The Wizard]

I used to hate Geroge Stenfpsdhnfdoidf, ass kisser of hillbilly clinton, but always felt Sammy had some brains

Today I must admit I was wrong......

little Sammy's treatment Of Secretary Thompson was absolutely shameless......shall we now call him Taliban Sam????

Pushing like a vicous dog in heat, working hard to make a non existant point and trying desperately to cause fear and harm to America for a by-line....what a press we have.....send them all over seas, they are embarrassing....they need to see some bullets and learn how dangerous they make our lives......

[Dr._Joseph_Warren]

I have NEVER considered "Toupee" Sam to be intelligent.

[Glenn]

I disagree. Of all the cabinet members, Tommy seems ill-prepared for the limelight. Sam tagged him too easily. The guy needs to polish his thinking when confronted by the likes of Sam.

[Tarheel]

...Of all the cabinet members, Tommy seems ill-prepared for the limelight. Sam tagged him too easily....

We are on a tape delay here but will watch this in about an hour. You are correct--Thompson does not appear to be 'up to speed' on this stuff nor is he press savvy.

Question--where is our surgeon general in this whole mess? He should be front and center explaining re: biological warfare, etc. This is not a job for a non-medical person such as Thompson.

The Tarheel

[A. Morgan]

Taliban Sam, I like it, fits better him than his toupee.

[gramho12]

I disagree. I totally like Tommy Thompson. And I like the reason Bush chose him: he is efficient, smart and gets things done. He is not a polished Cheney or Powell, but he is genuine and positive on how to accomplish things.

Donaldson on the other hand is an idiot.

[The Wizard]

and today he proved it.

[varon]

Question--where is our surgeon general in this whole mess?

She's busy teaching kids how to put condoms on bananas.......ooops, wrong administration ;-)

[denydenydeny]

I was struck by both Sam and Cokie's outrage that Republicans would dare play politics with the 30,000 new federal workers issue--WHILE NOT SAYING A WORD ABOUT DASCHLE HIJACKING THE NATION'S ENERGY POLICY.

[Balding_Eagle]

I like Tommy Thompson too, and was happy to see him included in the administration. However, he needs a little help preparing for these types of TV 'events', which focus on ambush rather than drawing out useful and interesting information for public consumption.

Personally, I'd like to see someone like Tommy pull out a 3 pound hammer and give the likes of Sam a swift one to the side of the head. I'd call that true public service.

[goodnesswins]

I watched Tommy Thompson with Brit Hume this AM and he did great....sorry, don't make it a point to watch Sam et. al....JUST how was it that Thompson wasn't prepared? How can you be prepared for STUPIDITY?

[Mr. Toobeley]

Haven't looked at Sam in a while, but heard the White House correspondent for NPR last week referring to President Bush as "Mr. Bush" over and over again, as if to make the point that he would never call President Bush "president"--quite irritating. And in today's Greenville News I saw the same guttersnipe spirit in the main headline, which reads, "Bush tries to reassure public, says enemies 'paying price'--the implication being that he's trying,fellow, but might not be up to actually succeeding. What nastiness.

[Pat Fish]

JUST how was it that Thompson wasn't prepared?

======

It's not that Thompson did such a bad job in my opinion. It's more that he did not have the correct answers. This is because he could not answer the question posed to him with confidence and assurance because....the country is not ready for a major biological attack.

He danced around the question, assuring us that there were two million vacinations ready for smallpox. If I was a news reporter I'd be beating on him too. We know there's a whole bunch more people than two million in this country, and further, the two million are alleged to be reserved for the military.

This is why we have news and reporters. To grill the government, hold their feet to the fire. Thompson did not have the goods and at least this citizen could read between the lines.

My big question is: Where the hell is Tom Ridge?

He's supposed to be the head poobah of Homeland Security and it is he that should be getting grilled.

[Cicero]

I didn't watch this. And I don't much like Tom Ridge. I was delighted when he was shot down as Bush's running-mate. But to be fair, what is the man supposed to say to what may have been some extremely dangerous and ill-timed questions? Should we be publicizing our lack of preparedness to deal with smallpox? It seems to me that job one is to start churning out cowpox vaccine in large quantities and get everyone vaccinated, before we raise this issue publicly. Unlike some of the others, it's one vaccine that's actually safe to use, tested over many, many years on hundreds of millions of people.

[Pat Fish]

But to be fair, what is the man supposed to say to what may have been some extremely dangerous and ill-timed questions?

=======

How are they ill-timed? Except that the government is not ready to handle this. That doesn't make a news person trying to get this information out to the citizen public to be guilty of asking ill-timed questions. This is what they are supposed to do though I never thought I'd be defending Sam Donaldson.

As for Tom Ridge, well no one's exactly sure what his job is so I kind of created some scenario in my own mind. Another thread suggests Ridge is a "second VP". I am absolutely convinced that the government cannot lead us through this, assuming there will be continued terrorist attacks. Cause let me tell you, if I was trying to figure out how to bring down American I'd do it exactly the way Bin Laden is doing it.

What're our weak points? Obviously we've been flying around in potential human-populated bombs for many years with minimal security. We are vulnerable to biological attacks in that we've stopped vaccinating for smallpox. Anthrax does not seem to be a viable mass biological weapon BUT ... it does serve to scare the public.

A public which, as Bin Laden sees it, has become complacent and dumb, totally lacking focus, morals or national unity. Consider those things that were once the subject of our national debate: social security, campaign finance reform, stem cell research. All stupid things to a hate-filled people, raised with a hatred nurtured from birth to maturity. They think we're a bunch of panty-waists and I think they have a point. Americans aren't used to sacrifice, inconvenience.....terror in their daily lives. Americans are simply incapable of handling a constant reign of terror, either through infrastructure or by the gubmint.

Now I don't necessarily think this is true. I think Americans are made of tuffer stuff than we are given credit. We just didn't have any occasion to which to rise.

However, this citizen is not comforted that the government is capable of organizing to leadership and save us all. Gubmint workers? This is not an atmosphere of creativity, ingenuity, swift action and implementation. You want this, go to the private sector.

If this country continues to receive terrorist attacks I truly believe it's going to be the citizens who will have to step up to the plate and save it.

I'm serious.

Which is what I was thinking maybe was Ridge's job, to coordinate with the private sector and the public sector and make it work. I think the gubmint consulting with Hollywood screen writers and such to glean ideas of future possible attacks to be right up that same alley. The folks churning out smallpox vaccines...these are NOT gubmint workeres. The ones who may have to come up with many millions of anecdotes for anthrax...are NOT gubmint workers. The ones who will eventually come up with fool proof plane cockpits, or face/fingerprint technology that will provide security yet efficiency in movement are NOT gubmint workers. The gubmint could not even track 600,000 student visas, something I could do in Excel! And they've been working on a database since 1996 with an allocation of over 15 million dollars! STILL they have gotten nowhere

So Tommy Thompson's dancing around the truth....he knows the gubmint cannot do this. *I* know the gubmint can't do this. Gubmint workers have spent the last few years putting on fake eyeballs and getting through the day. Or else they're out there protecting their turf and cushy jobs.

But be sure I'm an optimist. Given a crisis on a grand scale, it will be our innovative CITIZENS who take over. Not the gubmint.

[Oldsailor]

I saw this sorry interview by "Hit Man Sam" this morning and was as offended by it as could be. He had a point that he was intent upon making and used Badgering tactics to try to accomplish his goals. Bordered on Anti-American although I don't really believe Sam is that. Just over exuberant.

[MHGinTN]

Have you missed the FACT that Sam and Cokie serve the democrat sycophancy? The purpose of Sam's 'grilling' was revealed in Cokie's comments ... add to the terror and unsettled feelings (demoncrats always appeal to feelings instead of rational thought) so that the vacuum may be increased for the criminal enterprise to exploit in thew 2002 elections! Sam wasn't seeking to report, he was creating additional fear, on purpose! He serves a hidden master.

[The Wizard]

Lilse Stahal wins this nights award for lowlife press person of the night

Why do people like Condeleasa Rice have top put up with the likes of this maroon....`