Gee, I'm So Popular with Folks in Metro DC

In the past 24 hours, my blog has been graced with people from the State Department, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Senate Sergeant at Arms, a couple of other military organizations, etc.

While I love having new people come visit - the Senate and House sergeants, however, are not new, nor is the DoD - I keep thinking their time might be better served looking into their own messiness. I'm just a citizen trying to make sense of all of the mess they've created.

So just to be clear to those people: people like me are not the problem. We're the tax payers, the citizens, sitting aghast at what is going on in Washington. We watch in horror as you folks say one thing, do another, and then deny that you said or did those first things.

Chairman Richard Myers, for example, as well as a spokesman for the Pentagon, have said twice in the past week that the riots in Afghanistan and Pakistan were the result of many things but not Newsweek. Then, yesterday, jumping on the Bush Administration bandwagon, suddenly, Chairman Myers announced yes, Newsweek was the culprit.

But Newsweek is NOT the culprit. Our policies and practices toward detainees - so tiny few of whom are ever found to be involved in any way with terrorism - and toward the people of these countries are the culprit.

We're raised in this country to believe that there is a legal process, that people are innocent until proven guilty, and that we should respect others until the time they prove they are not worthy of our respect. That isn't what we're seeing Washington do.