It Ain't Easy

There's an old saying, "belive half of what you see and none of what you hear." Where reading the news fits into the equation is anybody's guess and I suppose it varies, from day to day, event to event. Reading about the (former) president having appointees lie about the environment, workplaces and the rationale for an unprovoked war constantly bordered on the unbelievable. $18 billion in taxpayers money has gone for executive bonuses, which doesn't really do well within the range of acceptability on the truth-o-meter. Governor Blago was caught on tape making deals and demanding cash up front. In the end, he said that "the fix" was in. I didn't think anyone outside an Elmore Leonard book talked like that. Ah, but I digress.

The top story on the front page of today's Oregonian was headlined, Is Son His Father's Bagman? Above it was a quote from David Ian Miller, special agent in charge of the FBI in Oregon. It read, "It wasn't easy to bring allegations against such a worthy adversary."

The story was about disgraced CIA spy Jim Nicholson, who "allegedly" sent his 24 year-old son to collect debts from Russia from his jail cell. Above is a picture of Harold James "Jim" Nicholson. So, let me get this straight-- he was a worthy adversary? Look at his freakin' T-shirt!!! Have G-men dumbed down or are they visually handicapped? I mean it! all the guy is missing is a hammer and sickle tattooed on his forehead.

This is another case that enhances my admiration for fiction writers. With so much unbelievable shit going on every day, there are still people who have the talent to be able to make things up. I mean, didn't Dick Cheney look like some evil character out of Central Casting at the Inauguration? I kept praying the woman wheeling him around would have just upended the chair like the baby carriage down the stairs scene in Battleship Potemkin. And Blago, for chrissake! Could anyone have made him up? He makes the likes of Huey Long, Richard Daley (Sr.) and James Curley seem honest by comparison. And this yutz, Nicholson? Did he get that T-shirt on Venice Beach or at the Moscow Airport?

"It wasn't easy?"

Don't give up your day job, agent MIller.