FLASHBACK: The Generation Gap
Posted: June 23, 2015 Filed under: Art & Culture, History, Mediasphere | Tags: 1960s, 1968, design, Generation Gap, Illustration, Life Magazine, Magazines, media, news, Nixon, Photography, vintage 1 CommentThis Day in History, October 10th 1973: Vice President Spiro Agnew Resigns
Posted: October 10, 2014 Filed under: History, Mediasphere, Politics, White House | Tags: Gerald Ford, John C. Calhoun, Nixon, Richard Nixon, Spiro Agnew, Tax evasion, Vice President of the United States, Watergate 1 Comment“In the United States today, we have more than our share of the nattering nabobs of negativism.”
“I apologize for lying to you. I promise I won’t deceive you except in matters of this sort.”
todayinhistory:
October 10th 1973: Agnew resigns
On this day in 1973 the Vice President of the United States Spiro Agnew resigned. Agnew served under President Richard Nixon until he was formally charged with bribery and income tax evasion. Agnew was the second Vice President in history to resign from office after John C. Calhoun in 1832. He was replaced by Gerald Ford, who later became President upon Nixon’s resignation over the Watergate scandal. Thus Ford is the only American President to have not been elected either Vice-President or President.
Pundit From Another Planet (via blondesforreagan)
[VIDEO] Cruz on Senate Floor: IRS Investigation Needs Special Prosecutor
Posted: June 26, 2014 Filed under: Mediasphere, Politics, U.S. News | Tags: Cruz, Democratic Party (United States), Internal Revenue Service, Nixon, Richard Nixon, Special prosecutor, Ted Cruz, Watergate scandal 1 Comment“We need a special prosecutor with meaningful independence to make sure that justice is served and that our constitutional rights to free speech, to assembly, and to privacy are protected.”
Cruz said on the Senate Floor on Thursday…He referred to the Watergate Scandal, and said that when President Richard Nixon attempted to use the IRS to target political enemies, “it was wrong, it was an abuse of power, and he was rightfully condemned by both sides of the aisle… Both cases involved an abuse of power, but the difference is that with Nixon,
“Republicans had the courage to stand up to their own party. It saddens me that there is not a single Democratic member of this body who has had the courage to stand up to their own party and say that this abuse of power . . . is wrong.”
Cruz continued…(read more) The Corner
IRS Destruction of E-mail Evidence: ‘If Nixon Had Burned the Tapes as People Had Advised Him to, He Would Have Served His Full Term’
Posted: June 24, 2014 Filed under: Crime & Corruption, Law & Justice, Mediasphere, U.S. News, White House | Tags: George Will, Internal Revenue Service, IRS, Nixon, Richard Nixon, Watergate, Watergate scandal, White House 1 CommentThe important question regarding the IRS investigation is how high up in the administration the scandal goes, George Will said on Tuesday’s Special Report.
“That there was targeting of these groups is not disputed…”
“The question that makes this interesting and the question that a special prosecutor would pursue is where does this lead, how high up does this go.”
Will noted that people have been saying that nothing has connected the IRS’s targeting of conservative groups to the White House, but he questions that. He recalled the Watergate scandal, which he said never would have been connected to President Nixon but for the tapes that showed him plotting obstruction of justice.
“Something equivalent to burning the tapes may have happened with the hard drive of Lois Lerner.”
Will explained that if Nixon had burned the tapes as people advised him to, he would have served his full time. “Something equivalent to burning the tapes may have happened with the hard drive of Lois Lerner,” Will said…(read more)
[BOOK] Preview: Nixon Tapes and Transcripts
Posted: February 28, 2014 Filed under: History, Politics, U.S. News | Tags: Douglas Brinkley, Henry Kissinger, National Archives and Records Administration, Nixon, Oval Office, Richard Nixon, Salvador Allende, Soviet Union, Watergate, White House 3 CommentsComing this August, on the 40th anniversary of Nixon’s resignation, a new book, “The Nixon Tapes“ by Douglas Brinkley and Luke Nichter. From the Amazon description, here’s a preview:
President Nixon’s voice-activated taping system captured every word spoken in the Oval Office, Cabinet Room, and other key locations in the White House, and at Camp David — 3,700 hours of recordings between 1971 and 1973. Yet less than 5 percent of those conversations have ever been transcribed and published. Now, thanks to professor Luke Nichter’s massive effort to digitize and transcribe the tapes, the world can finally read an unprecedented account of one of the most important and controversial presidencies in U.S. history.
The Nixon Tapes offers a selection of fascinating scenes from the
year Nixon opened relations with China, negotiated the SALT I arms agreement with the Soviet Union, and won a landslide reelection victory. All the while, the growing shadow of Watergate and Nixon’s political downfall crept ever closer. The Nixon Tapes provides a never-before-seen glimpse into a flawed president’s hubris, paranoia, and political genius.
[Look for the Kindle edition of The Nixon Tapes, or pre-order the hardback book from Amazon]
Nixon could never have imagined that people with home computers and smartphones would someday have instant access to a digitized library of audio and transcripts, representing thousands of hours of his White House recordings. Here’s the introduction from nixontapes.org:
nixontapes.org has the most complete, digital collection of the Nixon tapes in existence, which includes approximately 2,950 hours of the nearly 3,000 hours of tapes currently declassified and released by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). In addition, we have transcribed approximately 3,000 pages of conversations on many topics, from conversations dealing with the installation of the taping system in February 1971 to Cabinet Room conversations recorded in July 1973.
Nixonian Love Wisdom: Richard M. Nixon’s Top Five Romantic Quotes
Posted: February 16, 2014 Filed under: History, White House | Tags: New York City, Nixon, Pat Nixon, Politico, Richard Nixon, San Francisco, World War II 2 CommentsFrances Martel selects some Nixonian Love Wisdom from Politico‘s published collection of President Nixon’s love letters to his wife, to present Nixon’s Top Five Love Quotes:
[You mean you haven’t ordered this book yet? Pat and Dick: The Nixons, An Intimate Portrait of a Marriage at Amazon]
The letters, once revealed, in part, by the Nixon Foundation to celebrate what would have been the President’s 100th birthday, began as correspondence from spouse to spouse in their second year of marriage, as Nixon went off to officer training in Rhode Island. Since the military stationed Richard Nixon overseas, far away from his wife and her career, he would write her again and again. Below are five of the most romantic, inspiring, butterfly-inducing quotes revealed by Politico on Valentine’s Day:
1. “I am certainly not the Romeo type. I may not say much when I am with you—but all of me loves you all the time.”
It is certainly not difficult to imagine Richard Nixon describing himself as “not the Romeo type,” but there is something heartwarming about telling his new wife that he loves her this much but will never be able to make a dramatic gesture about it–as is the fact that he appears concerned that she will think he does not care for her. The sentiment comes at the conclusion of a romantic getaway to New York City one weekend he managed to escape the military. There they dined in Midtown Manhattan and gave themselves the luxury of each other’s time.

“Let’s swing over to my pad, we’ll listen to some Barry White…”
Vintage Coloring Book Illustration of the Day
Posted: February 2, 2014 Filed under: Art & Culture, Comics, Politics, Space & Aviation, White House | Tags: 1960s, Apollo Space Missions, Astronauts, coloring book, Comics, drawing, graphics, Illustration, NASA, Nixon, Paperback, Richard Nixon, vintage Leave a comment[VIDEO] Crossfire Guest Nick Gillespie: President Like ‘Hitler in the Bunker’
Posted: October 22, 2013 Filed under: Mediasphere, Politics, White House | Tags: Adolf Hitler, Gillespie, Harry Truman, History, Hitler, Nixon, Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, United States, Van Jones 2 CommentsGillispie said, of Sebelius, “she should have tendered her resignation,” and added “This is the biggest G.D. deal that a liberal administration has put forward since Harry Truman.”
“If the President didn’t know a couple days before how bad it was,” Gillespie added, “what is he, Hitler in the bunker? That is objectionable. ”
“Almost as objectable as the Hitler reference,” a smiling Van Jones added, because this is Crossfire.
“He’s like Nixon,” Gillespie allowed. “Is that better?”
NSA having flashbacks to Watergate era
Posted: August 25, 2013 Filed under: War Room | Tags: Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Flashbacks, Kissinger, leaks, Nixon, NSA, Secrets, Snowden, United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Watergate Leave a commentWASHINGTON — The National Security Agency is facing its worst crisis since the domestic spying scandals four decades ago led to the first formal oversight and overhaul of U.S. intelligence operations.
Thanks to former NSA systems analyst Edward Snowden’s flood of leaks to the media, and the Obama administration’s uneven response to them, morale at the spy agency responsible for intercepting communications of terrorists and foreign adversaries has plummeted, former officials say. Even sympathetic lawmakers are calling for new curbs on the NSA’s powers.
“This is a secret intelligence agency that’s now in the news every day,” said Michael Hayden, who headed the NSA from 1999 to 2005 and later led the CIA. “Each day, the workforce wakes up and reads the daily indictment.”
President Barack Obama acknowledged Friday that many Americans have lost trust in the nation’s largest intelligence agency. “There’s no doubt that, for all the work that’s been done to protect the American people’s privacy, the capabilities of the NSA are scary to people,” he said in a CNN interview.
Nixon tapes span Watergate, Soviet summit
Posted: August 21, 2013 Filed under: Reading Room | Tags: Leonid Brezhnev, Nixon, Richard Nixon, Soviet Union, Washington, Watergate scandal, Watergate tapes, White House Leave a comment
FILE – In this April 29, 1974, file photo, President Richard M. Nixon points to the transcripts of the White House tapes after he announced during a nationally-televised speech that he would turn over the transcripts to House impeachment investigators, in Washington. The last 340 hours of tapes from Nixon’s White House were released Wednesday, Aug. 21, 2013, along with more than 140,000 pages of text materials. (AP Photo/File)

FILE – The original Nixon White House tape and original tape recorder are shown in an undated file photo from the National Archives. The last 340 hours of tapes from President Richard M. Nixon’s White House were released Wednesday, Aug. 21, 2013, along with more than 140,000 pages of text materials. (AP Photo/National Archives, File
FILE – In this June 18,1973 file photo, Soviet leader Leonid I. Brezhnev, left, whispers in the ear of President Richard M. Nixon as the two leaders stand on a balcony at the White House in Washington. The meeting was the only summit ever recorded on an American presidential taping system. The last 340 hours of tapes from Nixon’s White House were released Wednesday, Aug. 21, 2013, along with more than 140,000 pages of text materials. (AP Photo/File)
YORBA LINDA, Calif. (AP) — President Richard Nixon had just delivered his first major national address on the Watergate scandal that would ultimately cost him the White House when the calls of support began pouring in.
Audio tapes released Wednesday show that within hours of the speech on April 30, 1973, the beleaguered 37th president heard from Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and evangelist Billy Graham.
The calls were captured on a secret recording system that Nixon used to tape 3,700 hours of phone calls and private meetings in his executive offices between February 1971 and July 1973.
The final chronological installment of those tapes — 340 hours — were posted online by the National Archives and Records Administration as part of a release that also includes more than 140,000 pages of text documents. Another 700 hours of tapes remain sealed for national security and privacy reasons.
Since 2007, the National Archives has released hundreds of hours of the tapes, offering the public an unvarnished and sometimes shocking view of the inner workings of Nixon’s administration and insight into the president’s private musings on everything from Watergate to Vietnam.
Obama’s Watergates
Posted: August 6, 2013 Filed under: Mediasphere, Reading Room | Tags: Associated Press, Jay Carney, John N. Mitchell, Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, Nixon, Richard Nixon, Ron Ziegler, Watergate Leave a commentDenial, evasion, “Let me be perfectly clear” — is this 2013 or 1973?
The truth about Benghazi, the Associated Press/James Rosen monitoring, the IRS corruption, the NSA octopus, and Fast and Furious is still not exactly known. Almost a year after the attacks on our Benghazi facilities, we are only now learning details of CIA gun-running, military stand-down orders, aliases of those involved who are still hard to locate, massaged talking points, and the weird jailing of Nakoula Basseley Nakoula.
We still do not quite know why Eric Holder’s Justice Department went after the Associated Press or Fox News’s James Rosen — given that members of the administration were themselves illegally leaking classified information about the Stuxnet virus, the Yemeni double agent, the drone program, and the bin Laden document trove, apparently to further the narrative of an underappreciated Pattonesque commander-in-chief up for reelection.