Saturday, Sept. 10, 2005 Here a bit more on Dr. Ben Marble, the guy who invited Mr Cheney to go fuck himself on national television. The URL is snipped here. Thanks to Linde for sending this in. http://snipurl.com/hkbw In an earlier comment, I said that I would not consider this the height of activism, but rather an honest moment. However, I've been thinking about it a little and I think that Ben Marble's comment to Cheney qualifies as speaking truth to power, which is exactly what we've been missing for a long time, and exactly what Cheney & Co. barricade themselves away from with their carefully vetted audiences at "public" appearances. In the next scene, we have Cheney doing a photo op in this guy's neighborhood to cover over the pathetic response of the federal government to the disaster, essentially taking advantage of the people who lost their homes to make themselves look good -- and in the process, he gets to hear from one of his constituents. I got hold of Ben's email through some miracle, and wrote to him just now, thanking him for passing on my sentiments to the vice president. Many times, I have stood within a few feet of lying, conniving public officials, watching them spew their self-serving venom as they put people in danger, and just as many times I've said nothing, or responded "appropriately" in my role as a reporter with a question, or a damning article the next day. And my Boy Scout leader, 4th grade teacher, and just about every editor I've ever worked for would agree that that was a better approach, preserving my theoretically more effective weapon against deception, my status and credibility as a journalist. But I think Ben summed it all up a lot better than I ever did. And people seem to have heard him.     e