>>I don't think you understand the difference between being consulted as an outside expert ( as was Hanson ) and being in the pay of the politician giving the speech.
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>Uh... am I committing a serious faux pas if I'm accepting money when I'm consulted?
People consulted for something like the State of the Union or Innaugural speeches are most often not paid for it. The idea is most often to try to run the basic themes and wording past those who do that kind of stuff a lot to get reactions. That's very different from being paid as you would a pr firm to promote a point of view. The egos of the people involved (and the fact they don't need the money) makes that very unlikely.
Charles Hankey
Though a good deal is too strange to be believed, nothing is too strange to have happened.
- Thomas Hardy
Half the harm that is done in this world is due to people who want to feel important. They don't mean to do harm-- but the harm does not interest them. Or they do not see it, or they justify it because they are absorbed in the endless struggle to think well of themselves.
-- T. S. Eliot
Democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for lunch.
Liberty is a well-armed sheep contesting the vote.
- Ben Franklin
Pardon him, Theodotus. He is a barbarian, and thinks that the customs of his tribe and island are the laws of nature.
