Top Gun CUNNINGHAM: I broke the law, concealed my conduct and disgraced my office.

"Matt Whiting" wrote in message
...
Jay Honeck wrote:

Cunningham is now serving a federal prison term for bribery. The San
Diego Republican was sentenced yesterday to eight years and four
months for taking bribes from at least three defense contractors.


This whole thing is so sad. Duke Cunningham was always one of my
heroes, and to see him completely fall from grace is stunning. What a
stupid, stupid thing to do.

Just goes to show you that a great fighter pilot doesn't necessarily
make an honest politician, I guess.

Is there such a person as an honest politician? I don't think those two
words can appear in the same sentence anymore.


Matt

Cunningham is a pariah in the fighter community. I talk to these people
every day. He's toast!
As for the honest politicians; there are indeed a few honest politicians who
run for office. Unfortunately, the instant they arrive to take that office,
they learn immediately that the system itself is so corrupt that no honest
politician can function there and survive.
Dudley Henriques

Cunningham is a pariah in the fighter community. I talk to these people
every day. He's toast!

Echo that - we have one of his aircraft on display and essentially, no
one wants to mention him when a tour goes past it. If visitors bring
him up, it is universally for the same reason, to deride and insult
him. My history with him is negative but most of our former military
pilots on staff were quite stout supporters of him, until his great "I
have sinned against yooooouuuuu!" speech. Now, its impossible to find
someone that isn't disgusted with him.

As for the honest politicians; there are indeed a few honest politicians who
run for office. Unfortunately, the instant they arrive to take that office,
they learn immediately that the system itself is so corrupt that no honest
politician can function there and survive.

I agree. From the moment a person gets elected, he has to begin the
process of getting RE-elected, with all the ass-kissing and kow-towing
that such an accomplishment requires. End result is that instead of
following their own principles, a freshman representative ends up
having to adopt whatever positions and views their new benefactors can
coerce them to accept. Its sad. I watched an idealistic young family
man rise up from the masses to become a representative here in San
Diego and within a couple years, his votes could be accurately
predicted by following which companies had donated money to his
reelection campaign. Worse, he is now righteously indignant when such
conduct gets pointed out by the media. Our system is broken. The
people who benefit from it being broken are the only ones that are in a
position to fix it, so its going to STAY broken. Duke was simply the
post child for the whole system.

v/r
Gordon

"Gordon" wrote

My history with him is negative but most of our former military
pilots on staff were quite stout supporters of him, until his great "I
have sinned against yooooouuuuu!" speech. Now, its impossible to find
someone that isn't disgusted with him.

Care to give us a little insight on what the "I have sinned against
yooooouuuuu!" speech is all about?
--
Jim in NC

Morgans wrote:
"Gordon" wrote

My history with him is negative but most of our former military
pilots on staff were quite stout supporters of him, until his great "I
have sinned against yooooouuuuu!" speech. Now, its impossible to find
someone that isn't disgusted with him.

Care to give us a little insight on what the "I have sinned against
yooooouuuuu!" speech is all about?

Cunningham's tearful mea culpa reminded me of an earlier, equally
unconvincing speech by disgraced Pastor Jimmy Swaggart, who used that
time worn phrase in front of the tv cameras. Go in front of your
constituents, grab the microphone, cry like a baby and try to convince
the faithful that you really are _sorry_ .... for getting caught!

v/r
Gordon

"Gordon" wrote

Cunningham's tearful mea culpa reminded me of an earlier, equally
unconvincing speech by disgraced Pastor Jimmy Swaggart, who used that
time worn phrase in front of the tv cameras. Go in front of your
constituents, grab the microphone, cry like a baby and try to convince
the faithful that you really are _sorry_ .... for getting caught!

Ahh, 2 +2 really is equal to 4, in this case! g
--
Jim in NC

"Gordon" wrote in
oups.com:

Morgans wrote:
"Gordon" wrote

My history with him is negative but most of our former military
pilots on staff were quite stout supporters of him, until his great "I
have sinned against yooooouuuuu!" speech. Now, its impossible to find
someone that isn't disgusted with him.

Care to give us a little insight on what the "I have sinned against
yooooouuuuu!" speech is all about?

Cunningham's tearful mea culpa reminded me of an earlier, equally
unconvincing speech by disgraced Pastor Jimmy Swaggart, who used that
time worn phrase in front of the tv cameras. Go in front of your
constituents, grab the microphone, cry like a baby and try to convince
the faithful that you really are _sorry_ .... for getting caught!

Not to mention Jimmy and Tammy Faye Bakkers bravura performance.
My reaction when they got caught was "THANK YOU, JESUS!" ( so to
speak ). They made my skin crawl. First time I saw Ernest Angeley(sp)
on TV ( circa 1984 ) I had a similar reaction.

IBM

On Sat, 08 Jul 2006 10:25:53 -0500, Ian MacLure wrote:

"Gordon" wrote in
roups.com:


Cunningham's tearful mea culpa reminded me of an earlier, equally
unconvincing speech by disgraced Pastor Jimmy Swaggart, who used that
time worn phrase in front of the tv cameras. Go in front of your
constituents, grab the microphone, cry like a baby and try to convince
the faithful that you really are _sorry_ .... for getting caught!

Not to mention Jimmy and Tammy Faye Bakkers bravura performance.
My reaction when they got caught was "THANK YOU, JESUS!" ( so to
speak ). They made my skin crawl. First time I saw Ernest Angeley(sp)
on TV ( circa 1984 ) I had a similar reaction.

IBM

Now there was a piece of work. I'd forgotten about him with the shiny
silk suits and very poor hairpiece, slapping people in the forehead,
shouting "out, Satan" and having them fall backward into the arms of
the catchers. Great TV!

Duke disappointed a lot of folks and in the process destroyed himself.
Lots of time ahead of him in Federal prison to consider what choices
he might have made.

Overall though, we've had some pretty good former military aviators
brave the political process and come out without disgrace--two George
Bush's, McCain, Denton, Sam Johnson, Rick Perry (gov. TX), Pete
Peterson (ambassador), and more that don't come to mind immediately.
Hell, even anti-war Sen. George McGovern flew bombers in combat--don't
agree with him, but he wasn't disgraced. Got a former Phantom Phlyer
running for Congress in my old district in Colorado this year--Bentley
Rayburn.


Ed Rasimus
Fighter Pilot (USAF-Ret)
"When Thunder Rolled"
www.thunderchief.org
www.thundertales.blogspot.com

On 8-Jul-2006, Ian MacLure wrote:

Not to mention Jimmy and Tammy Faye Bakkers bravura performance.

Back in the mid-70s my high school friends and I used to watch the PTL club
for its comedic value. We called it the "Pocket The Loot Club".
Scott Wilson

wrote in :

On 8-Jul-2006, Ian MacLure wrote:

Not to mention Jimmy and Tammy Faye Bakkers bravura performance.

Back in the mid-70s my high school friends and I used to watch the PTL club
for its comedic value. We called it the "Pocket The Loot Club".
Scott Wilson

I dare say you weren't alone in that.

IBM

On Sun, 9 Jul 2006 23:59:27 GMT, wrote in
::


On 8-Jul-2006, Ian MacLure wrote:

Not to mention Jimmy and Tammy Faye Bakkers bravura performance.

Back in the mid-70s my high school friends and I used to watch the PTL club
for its comedic value. We called it the "Pocket The Loot Club".
Scott Wilson

It's still going on under a different name:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trinity...work#Criticism
Criticism
The network has attracted criticism for its continuous fundraising
activities, including the "prosperity gospel," an offshoot of the
Word of faith doctrine that appears to promise donors, including
impecunious ones, that God will make them rich as long as they
have faith and give to TBN. Paul Crouch has made statements to his
viewers such as, "Have you got something that you have been
praying about ten, fifteen, twenty years? You have been praying
for it and haven't gotten it...," and that people haven't received
it because they haven't given their ten percent. During a 1997
program, he conversely said, "If you have been healed or saved or
blessed through TBN and have not contributed...you are robbing God
and will lose your reward in heaven." The network reports that
seventy percent of its donations are in amounts under fifty
dollars. Some viewers consider Crouch's prosperity as a positive
demonstration of the success of their prosperity gospel
message.[citation needed] A group of critical Christians has
banded together to attempt to jam the TBN phones during its
telethons as a protest against its fundraising, which the group's
organizer, a retired pastor, likens to robbery.

The network cancelled its November 2004 "Praise-a-thon"
fundraising telethon in favor of showing forty hours of reruns
from past telethons. Network officials blamed the cancellation
mostly on health concerns for both Paul and Jan Crouch, the latter
of whom had gall bladder surgery at the time. The Associated Press
reported those officials also noted however, that the cancellation
would take pressure off other religious figures who would have
appeared on the live telethon. In the wake of recent revelations
that Paul Crouch paid $425,000 in 1998 to a male former employee
to keep him quiet about claims of a homosexual tryst with Crouch,
and the AP also cited the recent newspaper reports about the
Crouchs' "lavish lifestyle" as well as ongoing rumors of marital
strife between Paul Sr. and Jan.

Paul Crouch Jr. voiced his belief that other ministries were
concerned "they are going to be next on the hit list." R. Marie
Griffith, a Princeton University scholar studying evangelical
Christianity and the media, said that "to take the live
broadcasting off...suggests...the chaos" at TBN.

If you thought Tammy Fay was a bizarre sight, wait until you see Jan
Crouch.

And then there's the son:

http://www.rickross.com/reference/tbn/tbn6.html
Televangelists settle $40 million plagiarism suit

These folks built a Taj Mahal on land that backs to the 405 freeway in
Orange County, California. They then illegally removed the CalTrans
landscaping that shielded motorists from the sight of their edifice.

It's evident, that folks are laughable crooks.