Afternoons I drive around in my small pickup and do chores or make contacts for work. I have Sirius… satellite radio… and afternoons are rather droll. The just left, or right, talk show programming during that time is pretty bad, so I tune into POTUS, a kind of catch all stream for left, right and all that’s between.

A news blurb came on. Addressing the Pelosi vs. the CIA conundrum, the “reporter” stated in that droll, newsie, rip and read monotone that “Nancy Pelosi has yet to prove that she wasn’t told about enhanced interrogation methods.”

Excuse me?

And how exactly is she to do that?

Another example of just how screwed up both the news is these days… and national dialogue. Coincidence that they’re both screwed up at the same time? Probably not.

OK, let’s skip the fact that she’s not supposed to talk about exactly what was said during such meetings. That’s a violation of national security. In fact Dick Cheney has been talking about such things and he either needs to admit he’s lying, or as only a citizen these days give himself up to authorities and admit his guilt: trafficking in classified national security information as a means to save his own ass.

Let’s also skip the fact that unless she recorded such sessions; a highly unlikely prospect since it would mean she too might wind up in prison even if recording them had been allowed… which is doubtful… once again for violating national security. And unless she has such recordings we would still have what we have now: he said/they said; which proves nothing.

Anyone else notice the spider trap Cons are trying to spring here? If she doesn’t try to prove the impossible then they can blather on and on that she hasn’t proven the unprovable. If she tries to prove it then they’ve brought her down, something I wouldn’t boohoo about… but that’s another matter.

Once again: how is she to prove her case?

She can’t. It’s simple logic. You cannot disprove, or prove, a negative.

Let’s get away from Nancy for a while, which makes me happy. I’m no fan; for she has all the toughness of Cream of Wheat with too much water added. She flips faster than dice at a busy Las Vegas casino.

Let’s use other means to make my point…

There is no God?

Prove it.

There is no life on planet earth, it’s all an illusion.

Go ahead: disprove it. All I have to keep saying is, “That’s part of the illusion.”

Would I be proving my point? No, I’d be acting like a moron. But that’s not my point.

This is why conspiracy theories; even the most absurd, can go on and on. The trips to the moon never happened; all staged? I can’t prove the negative is true, but if you attempt to disprove my negative I can spin all kinds of possible scenarios out to supposedly knock down your proof… from mass illusions, to fake broadcasts, to mind control on a massive scale…

I’m not claiming such arguments would be rational.

All I’ve offered above is the easy stuff. Given all the convoluted reasoning those who would claim such things would have to go through, and all the rocks, the images, the people who participated… we can be 99.999999999999% certain: yes, there we did visit the moon.

We don’t have any of that with Ms. Pelosi. Because she can’t talk about it and even if there were evidence I’m sure revealing it would be verboten. Now, if the CIA and their defenders: you know, the same people who blamed the CIA for bad intel before Iraq, want to produce specific evidence like recording and un-blanked out/unedited manuscripts that can be vouched for by independent sources… or certain Democratic sources (in other words sources without a political reason to bring down Ms. Pelosi) …then maybe I’ll buy their story.

But I friggin guarantee: that ain’t going to happen. Here’s why…

So far all I’ve heard is a vague: “they were told about enhanced interrogation.” To actually come anywhere near proving their point we would need to know not only exactly when, but what exactly methods they were told about… and not told about… and if she was only told, “might be used,” “will be,” or “has been.” Oh, and we would need those transcripts or recordings verified by an untainted source.

Good luck.

Otherwise we should assume the obvious. This is nothing more than another cheap attempt at “gotcha.” And this latest ploy is no more substantial than yellow cake, tubes, Curveball and all this grand “proof” that magically was shoved up the nation’s nose when Cheney started regular visits to the CIA.

Considering that, I prefer to believe Nancy Pelosi no matter what I think of her.

After all the bad intel and the vague “we told hers,” I think we may need to start considering if the CIA has been so corrupted, so destroyed by the past eight years… maybe the CIA, as it exists now, needs to be history.

-30-

Inspection is a column that has been written by Ken Carman for over 30 years. Inspection is dedicated to looking at odd angles, under all the rocks and into the unseen cracks and crevasses that constitute the issues and philosophical constructs of our day: places few think, or even dare, to venture.

Copyright 2009
Ken Carman and Cartenual Productions
All Rights Reserved