Tao is the source of the ten thousand things.

It is the treasure of the good man, and the refuge of the bad.

Secret words can buy honor.

Good deeds can gain respect.

If a man is bad, do not abandon him.

Therefore, on the day the emperor is crowned,

Or the three officers of state installed,

Do not give a gift of jade, or a team of four horses.

But remain still and offer the Tao.

Why does everyone like the Tao so much at first?

Isn't it because you find what you seek and are forgiven when you sin?

Therefore this is the greatest treasure of the universe.

Tao Te Ching (Ch-62)

The trouble aint that there is too many fools, but that lightning is not distributed right.

M. Twain

Sometimes there are magic times in history when an 'actor' has an opportunity to make a difference.  As when a 'journalist' finds an opportunity to ask the important question; a time when the journalist craftily becomes like the cross-examiner in a murder trial.  Of course there is no Judge present to command:

THE WITNESS MUST ANSWER THE QUESTION.

I think of course about the Frost interview of Nixon. A little over-hyped. Frost clearly became more conservative over the years from the time he worked with some members of Monty Python and such. Now of course the TV spectacular has been turned into a movie.  Frost had three days to lure Nixon into his web and at times he did a masterful job.

Dan Rather of course stunned the world at a press conference when Nixon said following applause for the CBS newsman:

Sounds like you might be running for something.

Why no, Mr. President. Are you?

SNL has had a lot of fun making fun of Chris Matthews. But I tell ya, I watch him almost every day and a couple times a week he will just rip into somebody like nobody's business. http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/2009/08/gun-toter-at-obama-town-hall-whod-be-silly-enough-to-carry-an-unloaded-firearm.php

I caught this from The Atlantic about Sunday's interview by Chris Wallace of Cheney:

Here are the tough and penetrating questions asked by Chris Wallace of a man whose critics accuse of war crimes, and whose administration presided over the death of over a hundred prisoners in interrogation, who authorized torture techniques once trade-marked by the Khmer Rouge:

Why are you so concerned about the idea of one administration reviewing, investigating the actions of another one?

Do you think this was a political move not a law enforcement move?

My two favorite moments:

CHENEY: I am going to -- if I address that, I will address it in my book, Chris. 

WALLACE: It is going to be a hell of a book. 

CHENEY: It is going to be a great book.

And then the apology for asking the questions Cheney wanted asked:

WALLACE: Well, we want to thank you for talking with us and including in your private life putting up with an interview from the likes of me. 

CHENEY: It's all right. I enjoy your show, Chris. 

WALLACE: Thank you very much, and all the best sir. 

When future historians ask how the United States came not only to practice torture but to celebrate it and treat torturers as heroes, a special place in hell among the journalists who embraced and justified it should be reserved for Chris Wallace. http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2009/08/chris-wallace-a-teenage-girl-interviewing-the-jonas-brothers.html

Well Andrew seems a little upset with Chris about this important interview.  But people are not aware that a document was just discovered that proves Chris Wallace went through a wormhole last year when he was visiting the NASA headquarters. Evidently he was attempting to find "the shitter' as he so eloquently calls it and got into the wrong room; a room where they had been testing the effects of gamma rays upon sexually confused laboratory rats.

Anyway, to make a long story even longer....Chris ended up in Berlin in May of 1940 and interviewed one of the greatest minds of that time: Adolf Hitler.  Here are a couple pages taken from that interview:

CHRISSY:    Der Fuhrer, may I call you Der Fuhrer?

HITLER:       Why of course Chris.

Chrissy:          It is such a pleasure to be in the presence of your eminence. And I thank you for taking the time to speak to such a lowly soul as myself.

HITLER:        Oh I am a member of the volks and as such I must get down with the mules like yourself and wade in a little shite.

CHRISSY:      Hahaha.  But seriously Der Fuhrer, things are heating up in Europe. As a matter of fact I just heard that you have sent troops into Norway and Denmark to protect those people from communist insurgents and you are even contemplating an 'invasion' of France. Is that your purpose Your Excellency? Is your purpose to defeat the rotten dirty communists and then leave the premises so to speak?

HITLER:         As a matter of fact, if I was not the truly chosen leader by God himself, I could not put it any more clearly than that, Chrissy.  In these modern times, we are faced with huge threats from the dirty communists as well as the Jews. You see the Jews have taken all the money and the commies are planning on taking your children.  SOMETHING MUST BE DONE.

CHRISSY:       Heil Hitler. Heil Hitler

HITLER:         There ya go Chrissy.  Oh there are communist forces out there attempting to destroy Europe as we know it, the bastion of civilization. I mean look, we have come to a time in history when we Europeans are capable of killing people faster than ever before. That is what I call civilization.

CHRISSY;       Well, my understanding Der Fuhrer is that you only plan to let the individual nations hold elections, fair elections and then you will vacate the invaded realms. Is that correct?

HITLER:         Why yes, that is exactly our plan. The good people of Denmark, Norway and France do not wish to harm the German Reich. No not at all.  We wish to make Europe a safe place for peace. PEACE HAS ALWAYS BEEN OUR GOAL.

CHRISSY:      What about these whispers Der Fuhrer?  There are whispers and rumors about Jews being carted off and killed? Could any of these rumors be true?

HITLER:         Are you getting your information from the Russian Politburo again Chrissy?

CHRISSY:      HAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHA

HITLER:         HAHAHAHAHAHAHA

CHRISSY:      Well there are concerns in the United States about this issue.

HITLER:         Well as you well know your Franklin Roosevelt has always had a cozy relationship with those Jews.  Did you know that he and his partner represented ONE client the entire time they practiced?  And guess who that was:  THE ROTHSCHILD BANKING GROUP responsible for a world wide depression.  But we have our friends in your country Chrissy. I mean there is that Father Coughlin and the hero Lindberg and many others, many others who cannot freely express their opinions. But no, we are a charitable race and we simply had to find a place to put all these Jewish insurrectionists and so they are off to Poland and that is the end of that. The Jews will prosper over there anyway. The Polish Catholics suffer from much the same racial traits as the Jews anyway. They will never amount to anything anyway.  We just had to get over to Poland last year in order to save the group of brave Germans who were taken from their homeland during the Last War.  But I digress.

CHRISSY:      Oh Mein Fuhrer, you may digress all you wish. Hahahaahahahah

HITLER:         HAHAHAHAHAHAHA

CHRISSY:      There has been a concern Mein Fuhrer that an awful lot of people are dying because of your actions. In Poland, in Russia....I know there are an awful lot of commies over there and everything. But there has been carnage.

HITLER:         Well who started all this Chrissy. And I must tell you that it is the communists that are causing most of the carnage and my heart goes out to those innocents.  There are innocent victims out there as a result of my meager attempt to right the wrongs committed in the early part of this still new century.  But Chrissy, I gotta tell ya, in order to make a good omelet, a good German omelet, YOU GOTTA BREAK A FEW EGGS.

CHRISSY:      Break a few eggs. Hahahahahahahaahaha  Oh you are good Herr Fuhrer, really good sometimes.  Hahhahahaha. This is such a great interview for me, I just cannot thank you enough.

CHRISSY:      Der Fuhrer, I would like to take a few minutes to discuss your book Mein Kampf. It is one hell of  a book.

HITLER:         Well thank you Chrissy.

CHRISSY:      My understanding is that you wrote that book in prison, Herr Fuhrer.

HITLER:         Yes Chrissy, as a matter of fact I did. The forces of communism put me there. Illegally and dishonorably I might add. It was there that I had my personal epiphany.

CHRISSY:      And a very good night to you, Der Fuhrer and good night for Standard Oil of New Jersey and of course, for our dear friends, Volkswagon.

I do recall one stunning cross examination on the Fox News; the cross examination by Bill Clinton of Chris Wallace.

In an interview aired on Fox News Sunday today, Chris Wallace asked Bill Clinton why he hadn't done more to get Osama bin Laden. Clinton's furious answer lasted several minutes, and included finger-wagging reminiscent of Clinton's angry declaration that he had not had sexual relations with that woman, Monica Lewinsky.

According to Clinton, this was all a right-wing hatchet job, and Wallace had never asked similar questions of Bush officials:

So you did FOX's bidding on this show. You did you[r] nice little conservative hit job on me. But what I want to know..

WALLACE: Now wait a minute sir...

CLINTON:..

WALLACE: I asked a question. You don't think that's a legitimate question?

CLINTON: It was a perfectly legitimate question but I want to know how many people in the Bush administration you asked this question of. I want to know how many people in the Bush administration you asked why didn't you do anything about the Cole. I want to know how many you asked why did you fire Dick Clarke.

Wallace replied that such questions had been asked. Clinton replied: "I don't believe you asked them that."  http://patterico.com/2006/09/24/chris-wallace-has-indeed-grilled-bush-officials-about-failing-to-get-osama-before-911/

Wallace's statement was disputed by Media Matters for America, a media watchdog organization that criticizes what it describes as "conservative misinformation in the U.S. media".[6] The organization stated that, having reviewed "dozens of interviews ... with senior Bush aides", it had found no interviews in which Wallace or his predecessor, Tony Snow, had asked a Bush administration official about the treatment of Clarke or about the lack of response to the Cole bombing.[7] As to Al Qaeda and the war on terror generally, the Media Matters report stated that Wallace had challenged only one Bush administration official, then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld,.

Now maybe you can wipe that goddamnable smirk off your face Chrissy.

For all my friends at Cafe: