Re: Iraq

In article <11pimpb6pngbvf4@corp.supernews.com>,
"Rick Smith" <ricksmith@mfi.net> wrote:

> "Joe Zitzelberger" <joe_zitzelberger@nospam.com> wrote in message
> news:joe_zitzelberger-2C9912.03050509122005@ispnews.usenetserver.com... 
> .. 
> He 
> used 
> The 
>
> Congressional committees, at least as I understand their
> function, conduct fact-finding to determine whether
> legislation is needed and discussions concerning proposed
> legislation. I recall from some years ago, though I can not
> recall the context, that no legislation was ever discussed,
> while McCarthy was running *his* hearings. It was the
> absence of any clear legislative agenda that made *his*
> different.

Congressional committees discuss whatever they feel like discussing.
Currently the analog-TV to digital-TV switch is popular - hardly a
federal government function - but popular nevertheless.

The "is legislation needed" gives a complete open end to any committee.
They can pass legislation on anything.  They can legislate that PI == 3
or the gravity of the earth is really 10 n/m/s.

Perhaps the result in the case of JM the answer was a simple "No,
legislation is not needed" was the end result.  That still falls into
your definition.
 
>
> < http://www.cobbles.com/simpp_archiv...c_blacklist.htm >
> seems to answer the remaining questions you pose.
> The "page" is rather long.

The page was quite long.  And wholly unresponsive and inaccurate.

In the first part, Joe McCarthy had nothing to do with HUAC or any
blacklist.  He was but a twinkle in the voters eyes when this was going
on.

In the second part, the so-called 'blacklist' did not exist.  There was
no official congressional list of actors that could not be employed.
The US government never said "don't hire these people".  There were only
movie studios that made a sensible business decision that hiring
communist agitators was bad for business.

I would suggest that any business today would be wise in avoiding hiring
members of Al-Qaeda.  And I will assert that _every_ legal department of
_all_ the 17,000-ish public corporations in the US agree with me.  The
liability of hiring such a person is so huge that they are simply not
employable if their political affiliation is known beforehand.

If you think that constitutes a 'blacklist' on the part of publicly
traded companies like Delta Airlines, United Airlines, Southwest
Airlines, etc... well, you might be right...

Care to try again?  Who did _McCarthy_ punish?

Hint:  The "Big Lie" technique only works if the listener is uninformed.