Tuesday, July 04, 2006

Mark Souder. Dirty Dozen.

The following is the Mark Souder excerpt from my interview with Sibel Edmonds on whistleblowers and the Dirty Dozen. This is Sibel speaking:

Rep. Mark Souder
Gov. Reform Committee

Another short one - this one is very easy! I’m going to send you a link to a video - and all you need to do is tell your readers to watch this video (30 secs) of this asshole! Mark Souder. He’s on the Gov. Reform Committee - Republican, Indiana. He’s a buffoon! This guy gets up and he doesn’t even know what whistleblower protection is about. He’s a complete dummy, from Indiana. So they had a hearing and this idiot didn’t even know that it was being video-taped. So he stands up and starts attacking whistleblowers - he said ‘Whistleblowers? Whistleblowers? They don’t need protection! These people are millionaires! Celebrities! They make movies, they make books, and they get millions of dollars! It's not like they are out there starving and need protection! I haven't seen one Whistleblowers panning for bread!" so one of the congressional offices called me right away and said 'Sibel! You’ve gotta hear this guy! We’ve got it on video!"

He's from Indiana right - it's a pretty conservative state - so I called my conservative whistleblowers - DoD, and Vietnam vets - and told them - ya know - I’m not going to have much luck here. You guys go and contact these people - because you're conservative and veterans and so on.' So these guys went on the blogs and called up the media - and these veterans jumped into it - they loved it. So they started bombarding Souder with letters (see here) saying 'what the hell are you talking about, you idiot!' you have been mischaracterizing whistleblowers as millionaires with book and movie deals! You know, of all the whistleblowers we have seen over the past 5 years, there are only a couple - Richard Clarke got a book deal - I don’t have members like that. Many of our members are unemployed, and broke - after decades of decorated service to their country! They are despondent - trying to make their mortgage payments, trying to keep their marriages together, trying to find work - and yet, still committed to stopping these crimes that are going on.

And I can give so many examples of our whistleblowers. I don’t have a whistleblower who has received a penny out of whistleblowing! It’s outrageous! Some of these people have already lost their homes - and their marriages break up because it has been so hard for them - economically, and physically, and mentally - and this guy Souder gets up there - and his voting record is very clear - he is anti-Whistleblowers - but also - well - just watch the video - he says 'All these whistleblowers have money, and fame - from books and movies - and he says 'it's not like they are out there starving for bread!'

So he's a moron - but he's a dangerous moron. For him to go and misrepresent whistleblowers this way it’s such a shameful act. These people are like today’s Paul Revere - they're the one who are doing the right thing - above their career - and above their future and above their 401k and their retirement. How many people would do that? Obviously - 99% don’t! Because they say 'hey - even though I think this is wrong - I’ve got to protect my family and my money etc' - so it's awful ok. I’ll also send you the letter that we sent to Souder - asking him to apologize and for him to say 'I was an idiot, and a moron - and I apologize, and I didn’t even know what being a whistleblower meant! I have to go look it up in the dictionary!' you know - just come out and apologize and take it back - and he's staff was like 'no he's not going to do that!' - so I said 'well, we'll take the issue directly to the people in his district'

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