When did "no" become "yes"?

Was taking a brief glance through the matter of Jack Murtha in the past few days. This is a decorated veteran who put his name and his reputation on the line by standing up to the Bush Imperium. He tried to run for House Majority Leader (otherwise known on Fox News as the House Democratic Leader) and even had the endorsement of Speaker-Elect Nancy Pelosi (who can still scare small children).

But then certain factions started cranking out some old news about Murtha. You can guess which factions right? GOP factions... conservative factions... "Swift Boat" factions... and they bring up the fact that Murtha escaped the ABSCAM trap of twenty years ago.

ABSCAM was this sting operation run by the FBI. A federal agent poses as an Arab sheik and offers lavish amounts of money for some favors. The whole thing is videotaped, so the participants can't try to lie about the whole thing. It was a pretty good operation... nailed quite a few members of Congress. And this was BEFORE they could blame everything on alcohol and run off to rehab like today's bunch of corrupt grifters and shysters.

So Murtha is seen in the ABSCAM videos being offered the bribe. Does he take the money? Nope! Does he agree to the offer? Nope! He says that he cannot do it... at this time. That's still supposedly enough to get a little investigation, but he's still cleared.

But NOW the same "Swift Boat" factions are claiming that Murtha REALLY is guilty of the whole thing because he said "not at this time"!

Folks, when I'm at the local store and the clerk is looking to sign me up for some privacy-killing "bonus program" or some "free magazine subscription", I don't jump down their throats saying "HELL NO! I WON'T TAKE PART IN YOUR SCAMS!" Guess what I tell them? I tell them "not at this time."

It's called being POLITE! Sure I'm brutally honest, but that doesn't mean I'm that way 24/7 for everything I do! I don't try to burn bridges if I don't have to, especially with people that I have to continue to work with.

I know, I know, politeness is not exactly a conservative and neo-conservative thing, especially in recent years. That's a big part of the reason why they come across as smug and arrogant. But that doesn't mean that the rest of the thinking humans have to abandon politeness either.

And by the way, Swifties, since WHEN did "no" become code for "yes"? Remember that old adage of "no means NO"? Well "not at this time" still means NO! Have you guys been busy hiding corrupt criminals and predators for so long that you forget that little tidbit?