He is also known as Mr. Valerie Plame..God I was so pissed I couldn't go hear him speak..there was a 30 second soundbite on the local news. He appeared at the Kegley Center for Ethics at Cal State Bakersfield tonight..ETHICS sportsfans!..he did say that he was familiar with the right leanings of the area and figure he would get a pie in the face..but he didn't..anything but!
An excerpt of the local rag's write up:
The audience overflowed the overflow room at Cal State Bakersfield's Doré Theatre on Thursday night and people had to settle for standing in the hall to hear former U.S. ambassador to Iraq Joseph Wilson speak.
Starlene Parson was one of more than 600 people who attended the free event, which was part of the Kegley Institute of Ethics' lecture series.
"It was interesting that the audience was supportive of him," Parson said.
Even Wilson thought his visit to such a conservative town might be more problematic than the welcome reception he received.
"I figured that if I was going to get a pie in the face, this would be the town," Wilson joked. Duh..Bakersfrigginfield is so rightwing its suffocating.
After a career of working with Republican Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, Wilson wrote an op-ed piece in The New York Times in July 2003 disputing information current President Bush used to justify a war in Iraq.
"I had a civic duty, and that civic duty was to call my government to account for what my government had said and done," Wilson said Thursday.
Days after Wilson's article, columnist Robert Novak revealed that Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, was a CIA agent. The revelation prompted a nearly two-year federal grand jury investigation because Plame's role with the CIA was classified, and it may have been illegal to disclose it.
He called ruining his wife's cover a "tawdry, cheap, dirty political trick."
Wilson's speech delved into the details of his work during the first Iraq war in the early 1990s, his investigation in Niger and his personal fight with the Bush administration after he came forward.
Wilson also stressed that while he may find himself more a friend to the left than the right these days, he has never seen national security as a partisan issue.
"The real implications in all this are to our country and our status and stature in the world," Wilson said. "It is our national status that is at play here, not our partisan status."
Attendee Harriet Morris was struck by how calmly Wilson presented his information and point of view.
"What I liked about him is he was kind of low-key. There wasn't any anger," Morris said. "There wasn't any angry rhetoric. He just kind of told the story, and the story is scary."
Before opening the floor to questions, Wilson ended his prepared speech with a call for vigilance from all Americans.
The TV soundbite also showed this remark as well as the article:
"If you lay back ... and you allow others to make your decisions for you, then the chances are pretty good that you will find you have lost your republic," Wilson said.
I am glad the conservatives filled the hall to listen to Mr. Wilson..It means Bush's dirty little secret is trickling down to the masses..everyone knows..or will soon..we can only hope sportsfans..
